Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Hosea 8:1
[Set] the trumpet to thy mouth. [He shall come] as an eagle against the house of the LORD, because they have transgressed my covenant, and trespassed against my law.
1 7. In great emotion (which reflects itself in the short clauses) the prophet announces the imminent invasion of N. Israel, and its true causes idolatry and schism
1. Set the trumpet to thy mouth ] Lit., To thy palate the cornet! An abrupt appeal by a heavenly voice to the prophet, who is bidden to give warning of the approach of the foe (comp. Hos 5:8 note). ‘Palate’, or ‘mouth’, as the organ of speech, as Pro 5:3; Pro 8:7, &c.
as an eagle ] The Hebr. word ( nesher) seems to have been specially applied to the great griffon vulture, the carrion-eating habits of which are referred to in Job 39:30; Pro 30:17; Mat 24:28, and its swift flight in Deu 28:49; 2Sa 1:23; Jer 49:22. References to this bird of prey (Assyr. nasru) are frequent in the cuneiform, inscriptions, and figures of it occur in battle-scenes on the monument. The more appropriate is it as an emblem of the Assyrian invaders. Similarly Nebuchadnezzar (whom St Jerome wrongly supposes to be meant here) is called an eagle (or vulture) in Jer 49:22; Eze 17:3.
the house of the Lord ] In chap. 2 we had the people of Israel represented as a bride who is sustained and adorned by her husband; here we have the figure completed by the description of the land of Canaan as the divine Bridegroom’s house (as Hos 9:15, comp. Hos 8:3). This beautiful figure is obscured if, with Reynolds and Whitehouse, we compare the weakened sense, ‘country’, of Assyr. bt. In the N.T. the house of God, or of Christ, is the Church, see Heb 3:6; 1Ti 3:15.
my covenant ] Most explain this of the ‘covenant’ or contract between Jehovah and Israel. But the phrase is more probably equivalent to ‘mine ordinance’, for the parallel clause has ‘my law.’ The Heb. word ( b’rth) sometimes appears to mean simply ‘appointment’, ‘ordinance’ (so 2Ki 11:4; Jer 11:6; Jer 34:13; Jer 34:18; Job 31:1; Psa 105:10), which may even be the primary meaning (comp. Assyr. bar ‘to decide’). Comp. the phrase ‘the book of the covenant’ (Exo 24:7).
my law ] See note on Hos 8:12.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The trumpet to thy mouth! – So God bids the prophet Isaiah, Cry aloud, spare not, llft up thy voice like a trumpet Isa 58:1. The prophets, as watchmen, were set by God to give notice of His coming judgments Eze 33:3; Amo 3:6. As the sound of a war-trumpet would startle a sleeping people, so would God have the prophets warning burst upon their sleep of sin. The ministers of the Church are called to be watchmen . They too are forbidden to keep a cowardly silence, when the house of the Lord is imperilled by the breach of the covenant or violation of the law. If fear of the wicked or false respect for the great silences the voice of those whose office it is to cry aloud, how shall such cowardice be excused?
He shall come as an eagle against the house of the Lord – The words he shall come are inserted for clearness. The prophet beholds the enemy speeding with the swiftness of an eagle, as it darts down upon its prey. The house of the Lord is, most strictly, the temple, as being the place which God had chosen to place His name there. Next, it is used, of the kingdom of Judah and Jerusalem, among whom the temple was; from where God says, I have forsaken My house, I have left Mine heritage; I have given the dearly-beloved of My soul into the hands of her enemies Jer 12:7, and, What hath My beloved to do in Mine house, seeing she hath wrought lewdness with many? Jer 11:15. Yet the title of Gods house is older than the temple, for God Himself uses it of His whole people, saying of Moses, My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all Mine house Num 12:7. And even the ten tribes, separated as they were from the Temple-worship, and apostates from the true faith of God, were not, as yet, counted by Him as wholly excluded from the house of God. For God, below, threatens that removal, as something still to come; for the wickedness of their doings I will drive them out of My house Hos 9:15. The eagle, then coming down against or upon the house of the Lord, is primarily Shalmaneser, who came down and carried off the ten tribes. Yet since Hosea, in these prophecies, includes Judah, also, the house of the Lord is most probably to be taken in its fullest sense, as including the whole people of God, among whom He dwelt, and the temple where His Name was placed. The eagle includes then Nebuchadnezzar also, whom other prophets so call Eze 17:3, Eze 17:12; Jer 48:40; Hab 1:8; and (since, all through, the principle of sin is the same and the punishment the same) it includes the Roman eagle, the ensign of their armies.
Because they have transgressed My covenant – God, whose justice is always unquestionable, useth to make clear to people its reasonableness. Israel had broken the covenant which God had made with their fathers, that He would be to them a God, and they to Him a people. The covenant they had broken chiefly by idolatry and apostasy; the law, by sins against their neighbor. In both ways they had rejected God; therefore God rejected them.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Hos 8:1
Set thy trumpet to thy mouth.
The Gospel trumpet
1. By sounding the Gospel trumpet the mind of God can alone be communicated to man. The voice of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost must be heard from the Scriptures. To the whole Christian priesthood the command is given, Preach the Word.
2. It is the purpose that all shall hear and obey the Gospel trumpet. The silver trumpet of the wilderness was for the entire encampment. Preach the Gospel to every creature.
3. In setting the trumpet to the mouth, we must give no uncertain sound. In the ordinance of the silver trumpet the greatest care was taken to instruct the sons of Aaron in its proper use. What is the Gospel? Is it not this?
(1) Man is a sinner, and responsible for his own salvation.
(2) Jesus Christ is the only Saviour.
(3) Mans part in his salvation is faith in the Lord Jesus. The faith must trust wholly in God, and produce a pure life.
(4) In the Gospel trumpet is Divine power; hence hope of victory over every spiritual foe. Intemperance, infidelity, Sabbath desecration, indifferentism, sin in the heart–these are the Jerichos of our day. Where is the hope of taking these strongholds of Satan? The preaching of the Cross as the power of God. Then set this Gospel trumpet to thy mouth! (A. H. Moment.)
As an eagle against the house of the Lord, because they have transgressed my covenant, and trespassed against My law.
The conventional Church
These words are singularly abrupt, and indicate the suddenness of the threatened invader. By the house of the Lord we are to understand Israel as a section of the professed people of God.
I. As endangered. How comes the eagle? Ravenously, suddenly, and swiftly. A conventional Church is in greater danger than any secular community, because–
1. Its guilt is greater.
2. Its influence is more pernicious.
Whose influence on society is the most baneful–the man who denies God, the man who ignores Him, or the man who misrepresents Him? The conventional Church gives society a mal-representation of God and His religion.
II. As warned. Blow a blast that shall thrill every heart in the vast congregation of Israel. Why sound the warning?
1. Because the danger is tremendous.
2. Because the danger is at hand.
3. Because the danger may be avoided.
What is wanted now is a ministry of warning to conventional Churches.
III. As repentant. Israel shall cry unto Me, My God, we know Thee. Oh hasten the day when all conventional Churches shall be brought to a deep and experimental knowledge of God and His Son! when this transpires the dense cloud that has concealed the sun of Christianity shall be swept away, and the quickening beam shall fall on every heart. (Homilist.)
God coming in judgment
whatever be the local and particular references as to the eagle, the great principle remains from age to age that God comes to judgment in various forms, always definitely, and always, as we shall see, intelligibly, not only inflicting vengeance as a Sovereign whose covenants have been outraged, but condescending to explain the reasons upon which His most destructive judgments are based. Thus we read, Because they have transgressed My covenant, and trespassed against My law: the covenant had been broken by idolatry, and the law had been violated by social sins. It is needful to mark this distinction with great particularity, because it shows the breadth of the Divine commandment. God is not speaking about a merely metaphysical law,–a law which can only be interpreted by the greatest minds, and put into operation on the sublimest occasions of life; He is speaking about a law which had indeed its lofty religious aspects, but which had also its social, practical, tender phases, in whose preservation every man, woman, and child in the kingdom ought to be interested. God has made it clear that sin is always a crime. Whoever sins against God sins against his own soul. Once let Gods beneficent laws be violated, and the man does not only suffer metaphysically, or go down in some practical quantity or quality, but he actually suffers in body and estate, sometimes apparently, always really. (Joseph Parker, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
CHAPTER VIII
This chapter begins with threatening some hostile invasion in
short and broken sentences, full of rapidity, and expressive of
sudden danger and alarm: “The trumpet to thy mouth; he cometh
as an eagle,” 1.
And why? For their hypocrisy, 2;
iniquity, 3;
treason (see 2Kg 15:13; 2Kg 15:17) and idolatry, 4;
particularly the worshipping of the calves of Dan and Bethel, 5, 6.
The folly and unprofitableness of pursuing evil courses is then
set forth in brief but very emphatic terms. The labour of the
wicked is vain, like sowing of the wind; and the fruit of it
destructive as the whirlwind. Like corn blighted in the bud,
their toil shall have no recompense; or if it should have a
little, their enemies shall devour it, 7.
They themselves, too, shall suffer the same fate, and shall be
treated by the nations of Assyria and Egypt as the vile sherds
of a broken vessel, 8, 9.
Their incorrigible idolatry is again declared to be the cause
of their approaching captivity under the king of Assyria. And
as they delighted in idolatrous altars, there they shall have
these in abundance, 10-14.
The last words contain a prediction of the destruction of the
fenced cities of Judah, because the people trusted in these for
deliverance, and not in the Lord their God.
NOTES ON CHAP. VIII
Verse 1. Set the trumpet to thy mouth] Sound another alarm. Let them know that an enemy is fast approaching.
As an eagle against the house of the Lord] of this be a prophecy against Judah, as some have supposed, then by the eagle Nebuchadnezzar is meant, who is often compared to this king of birds. See Eze 17:3; Jer 48:40; Jer 49:22; Da 7:4.
But if the prophecy be against Israel, which is the most likely, then Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, is intended, who, for his rapidity, avarice, rapacity, and strength, is fitly compared to this royal bird. He is represented here as hovering over the house of God, as the eagle does over the prey which he has just espied, and on which he is immediately to pounce.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
He; the king of Assyria, Shalmaneser, who carried Israel captive.
As an eagle; swift, hungry, surmounting all difficulties, and which from above seizeth his prey; so shall the Assyrian army come.
Against; or up to, as far as, so some, but it is better as here,
against. The house of the Lord; either so called because the Israelites pretended their temples were not idols houses, but houses of Jehovah, and so the prophet for once calls them so, perhaps to intimate to that their sins would bring an enemy against those though they were indeed what they pretend them to be, the house of the Lord; or else by
house of the Lord is meant the family of Israel, or the Israelitish church, which till unchurched might be called the house of the Lord: or it may be a sarcasm or irony against their wilful, brutish ignorance, who would not understand what was most plain, that his house was only at Jerusalem; or a softer derision of them, one of whose principal places of worship was Beth-el, which in signification is near the same with this in the text, house of God.
They have transgressed my covenant; taken other gods instead of me, turned idolaters.
Trespassed against my law: this explains and confirms the former; covenant and law are synonymous, and so are transgressing and trespassing. They have violated the whole law and covenant, and are apostates from their God, rebels against him their King.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
1. Set the trumpet, c.to givewarning of the approach of the enemy: “To thy palate(that is, ‘mouth,’ Job 31:30,Margin) the trumpet” the abruptness of expressionindicates the suddenness of the attack. So Ho5:8.
as . . . eagletheAssyrian (Deu 28:49; Jer 48:40;Hab 1:8).
against . . . house of . . .Lordnot the temple, but Israel viewed as the family of God(Hos 9:15; Num 12:7;Zec 9:8; Heb 3:2;1Ti 3:15; 1Pe 4:17).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
[Set] the trumpet to thy mouth,…. Or, “the trumpet to the roof of thy mouth” t; a concise expression denoting haste, and the vehemence of the passions speaking; they are either the words of the Lord to the prophet, as the Targum,
“O prophet, cry with thy throat as with a trumpet, saying;”
Aben Ezra take them to be the words of the Lord the prophet, and the sense agrees with Isa 58:1. The prophet is here considered as a watchman, and is called upon to blow his trumpet; either to call the people together, “as an eagle to the house of the Lord” u, as the next clause may be connected with this; that is, to come as swiftly to the house of the Lord, and hear what he had to say to them, and to supplicate the Lord for mercy in a time of distress: or to give the people notice of the approach of the enemy, and tell them that
[he shall come] as an eagle against the house of the Lord; “flying as an eagle over” w or “against the house of the Lord”: or they are the words of the Lord, or of the prophet, to the enemy, to blow his trumpet, and sound the alarm of war, and call his army together, and bid them fly like an eagle, with that swiftness and fierceness as that creature does to its prey, against the house of the Lord; meaning not the temple at Jerusalem, but the nation of Israel, formerly called the house and family of God, and still pretended to be so. There may be some allusion to Bethel, which signifies the house of God, where they practised their idolatry. This is to be understood, not of Nebuchadnezzar, sometimes compared to an eagle, Eze 17:3; for not the destruction of the city and temple of Jerusalem is here meant; nor of the Romans, as Lyra seems to understand it, the eagle being the ensign of the Romans; but of Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, compared to this creature for his swiftness in coming, his strength, fierceness, and cruelty; this creature being swift in flight, and a bird of prey. So the Targum interprets it of a king and his army,
“behold, as an eagle flieth, so shall a king with his army come up and encamp against the house of the sanctuary of the Lord.”
Some reference seems to be had to De 28:49;
because they have transgressed my covenant, and trespassed against my law; the law that was given to Israel by Moses at the appointment of God, to which they assented, and promised to observes: and so it had the form of a covenant to them: the bounds of this law and covenant they transgressed, and dealt perfidiously with, and prevaricated in, and wilfully broke all its commands, by their idolatry, murder, adultery, theft, and other sins.
t “adhibita palato tuo buccina”, Junius Tremellius “adhibe palato buccinam”, De Dieu; “ad palatum tuum buccinam”, Schmidt. u “similis aquilae in domum Jehovae”, Junius Tremellius, Piscator. w “Super domum Domini”, Pagninus, Montanus, Cocceius, Schmidt “contra domum Jehovae”, Liveleus.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The prophecy rises with a vigorous swing, as in Hos 5:8, to the prediction of judgment. Hos 5:1. “The trumpet to thy mouth! Like an eagle upon the house of Jehovah! Because they transgressed my covenant, and trespassed against my law. Hos 5:2. To me will they cry: My God, we know Thee, we Israel!” The first sentence of Hos 5:1 is an exclamation, and therefore has no verb. The summons issues from Jehovah, as the suffixes in the last sentences show, and is addressed to the prophet, who is to blow the trumpet, as the herald of Jehovah, and give the people tidings of the approaching judgment (see at Hos 5:8). The second sentence gives the alarming message to be delivered: like an eagle comes the foe, or the judgment upon the house of Jehovah. The simile of the eagle, that shoots down upon its prey with the rapidity of lightning, points back to the threat of Moses in Deu 28:49. The “house of Jehovah” is neither the temple at Jerusalem (Jerome, Theod., Cyr.), the introduction of which here would be at variance with the context; nor the principal temple of Samaria, with the fall of which the whole kingdom would be ruined (Ewald, Sim.), since the temples erected for the calf-worship at Daniel and Bethel are called Beth bamoth , not Beth Y e hovah ; nor even the land of Jehovah, either here or at Hos 9:15 (Hitzig), for a land is not a house; but Israel was the house of Jehovah, as being a portion of the congregation of the Lord, as in Hos 9:15; Num 12:7; Jer 12:7; Zec 9:8; cf. in Heb 3:6 and 1Ti 3:15. The occasion of the judgment was the transgression of the covenant and law of the Lord, which is more particularly described in 1Ti 3:4. In this distress they will call for help to Jehovah: “My God (i.e., each individual will utter this cry), we know Thee?” Israel is in apposition to the subject implied in the verb. They know Jehovah, so far as He has revealed Himself to the whole nation of Israel; and the name Israel is in itself a proof that they belong to the people of God.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| Sin and Punishment of Israel; Crimes Charged against Israel; Sottish Idolatry of Israel. | B. C. 745. |
1 Set the trumpet to thy mouth. He shall come as an eagle against the house of the LORD, because they have transgressed my covenant, and trespassed against my law. 2 Israel shall cry unto me, My God, we know thee. 3 Israel hath cast off the thing that is good: the enemy shall pursue him. 4 They have set up kings, but not by me: they have made princes, and I knew it not: of their silver and their gold have they made them idols, that they may be cut off. 5 Thy calf, O Samaria, hath cast thee off; mine anger is kindled against them: how long will it be ere they attain to innocency? 6 For from Israel was it also: the workman made it; therefore it is not God: but the calf of Samaria shall be broken in pieces. 7 For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind: it hath no stalk: the bud shall yield no meal: if so be it yield, the strangers shall swallow it up.
The reproofs and threatenings here are introduced with an order to the prophet to set the trumpet to his mouth (v. 1), thus to call a solemn assembly, that all might take notice of what he had to deliver and take warning by it. He must sound an alarm, must, in God’s name, proclaim war with this rebellious nation. An enemy is coming with speed and fury to seize their land, and he must awaken them to expect it. Thus the prophet must do the part of a watchman, that was by sound of trumpet to call the besieged to stand to their arms, when he saw the besiegers making their attack, Ezek. xxxiii. 3. The prophet must lift up his voice like a trumpet (Isa. lviii. 1), and the people must hearken to the sound of the trumpet, Jer. vi. 17. Now,
I. Here is a general charge drawn up against them as sinners, as rebels and traitors against their sovereign Lord. 1. They have transgressed my covenant, v. 1. They have not only transgressed the command (every sin does that), but they have transgressed the covenant; they have been guilty of such sins as break the original contract; they have revolted from their allegiance, and violated the marriage-covenant by their spiritual whoredom; they have, in effect, declared that they will be no longer God’s people, nor take him for their God; that is transgressing the covenant. They have not only done foolishly, but have dealt deceitfully. 2. They have trespassed against my law in many particular instances. God’s law is the rule by which we are to walk; and this is the malignity of sin, that it trespasses upon the bounds set us by that law. 3. They have cast off the thing that is good. They have put away and rejected good, that is, God himself; so some understand it, and very fitly. He is good, and does good, and is our goodness. There is none good but one, that is God, the fountain of all good. They have cast him off, as not desiring to have any thing more to do with him. God was abandoning them to ruin, and here gives the reason for it. Note, God never casts off any till they first cast him off. Or, as we read it, They have cast off the thing that is good; they have cast off the service and worship of God, which is, in effect, casting God off. They have cast off that which denominates men good; they have cast off the fear of God, and the regard of man, and all sense of virtue and honesty. Observe, They have transgressed my covenant; it has come to this at last; for they trespassed against my law. Breaking the command made way for breaking the covenant; and they did that, for they cast off that which was good; there it began first. They left off to be wise and to do good, and then they went all to naught, Ps. xxxvi. 3. See the method of apostasy; men first cast off that which is good; then those omissions make way for commissions; and frequent actual transgressions of God’s law bring men at length to an habitual renunciation of his covenant. When men cast off praying, and hearing, and sabbath-sanctification, and other things that are good, they are in the high road to a total forsaking of God.
II. Here are general threatenings of wrath and ruin for their sin: The enemy shall come as an eagle against the house of the Lord, and (v. 3) shall pursue him. If by the house of the Lord we understand the temple at Jerusalem, by the eagle that comes against it we must suppose to be meant either Sennacherib, who had taken all the fenced cities of Judah, laid siege to Jerusalem (and, no doubt, aimed at the house of the Lord, to lay that waste, as he had done the temples of the gods of other nations), or Nebuchadnezzar, who burnt the temple and made a prey of the vessels of the temple. But, if we make it to point at the destruction of the kingdom of the ten tribes by the king of Assyria, we must reckon it is the body of that people which as Israelites, to whom pertained the adoption, the glory, and the covenants, is here called the house of the Lord. They thought their being so would be their protection; but the prophet is directed to tell them that now they had lost the life and spirit of their religion, though they still retained the name and form of it, they were but as a carcase to which the eagles and other birds of prey should be gathered together. The enemy shall pursue them as an eagle, so swiftly, so strongly, so furiously. Note, Those who break their covenant of friendship with God expose themselves to the enmity of all about them, to whom they make themselves a cheap and easy prey; and their having been the house of the Lord, and his living temples, will be no excuse nor refuge to them. See Amos iii. 2.
III. Here is the people’s hypocritical claim of relation to God, when they were in trouble and distress (v. 2): Israel shall cry unto me; when either they are threatened with these judgments, and would plead an exemption, or when the judgments are inflicted on them and they apply to God for relief, pouring out a prayer when God’s chastening is upon them, they will plead that among them God is known and his name is great (Ps. lxxvi. 1) and in their distress will pretend to that knowledge of God’s ways which in their prosperity they desired not, but despised. They will then cry unto God, will call him their God, and (as impudent beggars) will tell him they are well acquainted with him, and have known him long. Note, There are many who in works deny God, and disown him, yet, to serve a turn, will profess that they know him, that they know more of him than some of their neighbours do. But what stead will it stand a man in to be able to say, My God, I know thee, when he cannot say, “My God, I love thee,” and “My God, I serve thee, and cleave to thee only?”
IV. Here is the prophet’s expostulation with them, in God’s name (v. 5): How long will it be ere they attain to innocency? It is not meant of absolute innocency (that is what the guilty can never attain to); but how long will it be ere they repent and reform, ere they become innocent in this matter, and free from the sin of idolatry? They are wedded to their idols; how long will it be ere they are weaned from them, ere they are able to get clear of them? so it might be rendered. This intimates that custom in sin makes it very difficult for men to part with it. It is hard to cleanse from that filthiness, either of flesh or spirit, which has been long wallowed in. But God speaks as if he thought the time long till sinners cast away their iniquities and come to live a new life. He complains of their obstinacy; it is that which keeps his anger against them burning, which would soon be turned away if they did but attain to innocency from those sins that kindled it. They in trouble cry, How long will it be ere God return to us in a way of mercy? but they do not hear him ask, How long will it be ere they return to God in a way of duty?
V. Here are some particular sins which they are charged with, are convicted of the folly of, and warned of the fatal consequences of, and for which God’s anger is kindled against them.
1. In their civil affairs. They set up kings without God, and in contempt of him, v. 4. So they did when they rejected Samuel, in whom the Lord was their king, and chose Saul, that they might be like the nations. So they did when they revolted from their allegiance to the house of David, and set up Jeroboam, wherein, though they fulfilled God’s secret counsel, yet they aimed not at his glory, nor consulted his oracle, nor applied to him by prayer for direction, nor had any regard to his providence, but were led by their own humour and hurried on by the impetus of their own passions. So they did now about the time when Hosea prophesied, when it seems to have grown fashionable to set up kings, and depose them again, according as the contenders for the crown could make an interest, 2 Kings xv. 8, c. Note, We cannot expect comfort and success in our affairs when we go about them, and go on in them, without consulting God and acknowledge not him in all our ways: “They set up kings, and I knew it not, that is, I did not know it from them, they did not ask counsel at my mouth, whether they might lawfully do it or whether it would be best for them to do it, though they had prophets and oracles with whom they might have advised.” They looked not to the Holy One of Israel, Isa. xxxi. 1. Nor did the princes do as Jephthah, who, before he took upon him the government, uttered all his words before the Lord in Mizpeh, Judg. xi. 11. Note, Those that are entrusted with public concerns, and particularly with the election and nomination of magistrates, ought to take God along with them therein, by desiring his direction and designing his honour.
2. In their religious matters they did much worse for they set up calves against God, in competition with him and contradiction to him. “Of their silver and their gold which God gave them, and multiplied to them, that they might serve and honour him with them, they have made them idols.” They called them gods (1 Kings xii. 28, Behold thy gods, O Israel!) but God calls them idols; the word signifies griefs, or troubles, because they are offensive to God and will be ruining to those that worship them. Their silver and their gold they have made to them idols; so the words are, referring primarily to the images of their gods, which they made of gold and silver, especially the golden calves at Dan and Bethel. Idolaters spare no cost in worshipping their idols. But they are very applicable to the spiritual idolatry of the covetous: Their silver and their gold are the gods they place their happiness in, set their hearts upon, to which they pay their homage, and in which they put their confidence. Now, to show them the folly of their idolatry, he tells them,
(1.) Whence their gods came. Trace them to their original, and they will be found the creatures of their own fancies and the work of their own hands, v. 6. The calf they worshipped is here called the calf of Samaria, because it is probable that when Samaria, in Ahab’s time, became the metropolis of the kingdom, a calf was set up there to be near the court, besides those at Dan and Bethel, or perhaps one of those was removed thither; for those that are for new gods will still be for newer. Now let them consider what this god of theirs owed its rise and being to. [1.] To their own invention and institution: From Israel was it also, not from the God of Israel (he expressly forbade it), but from Israel; it was a device of their own (some think), not borrowed from any of their neighbours, no, not from the Egyptians, for, though they worshipped Apis in a living cow, they never worshipped a golden calf; that was from Israel; it was their own iniquity. Now could that be worthy of their worship which was a contrivance of their own? It was from Israel, that is, the gold and silver of which it was made were collected from the people of Israel by a brief: it was a poor god that was framed by contribution. [2.] It was owing to the skill and labour of the craftsman, Deut. xxvii. 15. The workmen made it, therefore it is not God, v. 6. This is a very cogent conclusive argument, and the inference so very plain that one would think their own thoughts should have suggested it to them, so as to make them ashamed of their idolatry. What can be more absurd than for men to worship that as a god, giving being and good to them, which they themselves gave being to (both matter and form), but could not give life to? A made god is no God. This is a self-evident truth; and yet St. Paul was accused as a criminal for preaching that those are no gods which are made with hands, Acts xix. 26. And, here, this which should have turned them from their idols comes in as a reason why they were inseparably wedded to them; therefore they could not attain to innocency because it was from themselves; they were willing to have gods of their own to do what they pleased with, that they themselves might do what they pleased.
(2.) What their gods would come to. If they are not gods, they will not last; nay, if they pretend to be gods, they will be reckoned with: The calf of Samaria shall be broken to pieces, and those that would not yield to the force of the former argument shall be convinced by this that it is not God, but an unprofitable idol, as the Chaldee calls it. It shall be broken to shivers, like a potter’s vessel, though it be a golden calf. It shall be chips or saw-dust; it shall be a spider’s web; so St. Jerome. It seems to allude to Moses’s grinding to powder the golden calf that was in his time. This shall be served as that was. Sennacherib boasted what he had done to Samaria and her idols, Isa. x. 11. Note, Deifying any creature makes way for the destruction of it. If they had made vessels and ornaments for themselves of their silver and gold, they might have remained; but, if they make gods of them, they shall be broken to pieces.
(3.) What their gods would bring them to. The breaking of them to pieces would be a disappointment to those who trusted in them. But that was not all: They have made to themselves idols, that they may be cut off (v. 4), that their gold and silver, which they so abused, may be cut off (so some take it), nay, that they may themselves be cut off from God, from their own land, from the land of the living. Their idolatry will as certainly end in their extirpation as if they had purposely designed it. And, when this proves to be the effect of their sin, what relief will they have from the gods wherein they trusted? None at all: “Thy calf, O Samaria! has cast thee off; it cannot give thee any help in thy distress, and the pleasure thou now takest in it will vanish, and be no pleasure to thee.” Those that were justly sent to the gods whom they had chosen found them miserable comforters, Judg. x. 14. If men will not quit the love and service of sin, yet they shall certainly lose all the delights and profits of it. If Samaria had continued firm and faithful to the God of Israel, he would have been a present powerful help to her; but the calf she preferred before him was a broken reed. The case will be the same with those that make their silver and their gold their god. It will cast them off, and not profit them in the day of wrath, Ezek. vii. 12. Note, Those that suffer themselves to be deceived into any idolatries will certainly find themselves deceived in them. Cardinal Wolsey owned that if he had served his God as faithfully as he had served his prince he would not have cast him off, as his prince did, in his old age. Their disappointment in their idols is illustrated (v. 7) by a similitude which intimates both that and the destruction which God brought upon them for their idolatry. [1.] They got no good to themselves by worshipping idols: They have sown the wind. They have put themselves to a great deal of trouble and expense to make and worship their idols, have made a business of it as much as the husbandman does of sowing his corn, in expectation of reaping some mighty advantage from it, and that they should be as prosperous and victorious as the neighbouring nations were, that worshipped idols. But it is all a cheat; it is like sowing the wind, which can yield no increase; they labour in vain, labour for the wind, Eccl. v. 16. They take great pains to no purpose, and weary themselves for very vanity, Hab. ii. 13. Those that make an idol of this world do so; they set their eyes on that which is not, which, like the wind, makes a great noise, but has nothing substantial in it. [2.] They brought ruin upon themselves by it: They shall reap the whirlwind, a great whirlwind (so the word signifies), which shall hurry them away and dash them to pieces. They not only have not their false gods for them but they set the true God against them; their favour will stand them in no more stead than the wind, but his wrath will do them more mischief than a whirlwind. As a man sows, so shall he reap. “If it may be supposed that a man should sow the wind, and cover it with earth, or keep it there for a while penned up, what could he expect but that it should be forced by its being shut up, and the accession of what might increase its strength, to break forth again in greater quantities with greater violence?” So Dr. Pocock. They promise themselves plenty, peace, and victory, by worshipping idols, but their expectations come to nothing. What they sow never comes up; it has no stalk, no blade, or, if it have, the bud shall yield no meal; it shall be as the thin ears in Pharaoh’s dream, that were blasted with the east wind, and there was nothing in them. Or if it yield, if they do prosper for a while in their idolatrous courses, the strangers shall swallow it up; it shall be so far from doing them any service that it shall be but as a bait to invite strangers to invade them, and as a spoil to enrich those strangers and enable them to do so much the more mischief. Note, The service of idols is an unprofitable service, and the works of darkness are unfruitful; nay, in the end they will be pernicious. Rom. vi. 21, The end of those things is death. Those that sow iniquity reap vanity: nay, those that sow to the flesh, reap corruption. The hopes of sinners will be cheats, and their gains will be snares.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
HOSEA – CHAPTER 8
GOD’S LAMENT AGAINST ISRAEL CONTINUED
Verses 1-14:
Verse 1 is an imperative of sudden nature, calling upon Israel to put the trumpet to her mouth or palate, to give warning of the coming of the enemy like a cyclone against Israel, or like an eagle swooping down, Job 31:30. Shalmaneser swooped down from Assyria, first to conquer the ten northern tribes, while Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon followed later, to conquer Judah and Benjamin the southern kingdom, because they had transgressed His covenant and trespassed against His law, Deu 28:49; Num 12:7; Jer 12:7; Thus Israel, as God’s house or heritage, was driven out of the holy land.
Verse 2 prophesies that Israel in captivity will cry to God, that she knows Him. But their cry is one of deceit, hypocrisy, and of covetous design, to try to get mercy from Him whom they had lied about, treated with contempt, Hos 7:13. In their acts they knew Him not, or did not recognize Him and what He had told them, Exo 20:1-5; Jer 7:4; Isa 29:13. So it is with many in this age, Mat 7:21-22; Tit 1:16.
Verses 3 asserts that Israel has cast off, like an unwanted or soiled garment, the goodness of God, those holy virtues and attributes that should adorn men of faith, Psa 119:68; 2Pe 1:4-9. In retribution, for her casting off the good, the moral, ethical, and holy things of life and the law, God warns that the enemy shall pursue Israel, like a hound after the rabbit, till the kill, Hos 5:15; Psa 78:34.
Verses 4 itemized certain acts of anarchy Israel had pursued against God, 1Ki 12:31.
1) they set up kings, not of His sanction or approval, and
2) made princes (secular rulers) rulers, did, their own thing in affairs of government, without consulting Him or His law, and
3) they made idols of silver and gold, in defiance of his first two commandments, which they were supposed to keep or guard in a holy or sanctified way, Exo 20:1-5; Jer 7:15; Jer 44:8. Though forewarned, Israel pursued her chosen path of idolatrous anarchy against her God. Though forewarned, they went heedlessly on.
Verse 5 laments the calf-worship in Samaria, which caused her to be cast off from God’s mercy for certain chastisement. The calf is called “thy calf,” because Israel worshipped it at Dan and at Bethel; The wonder is how long it will be that they can even endure or tolerate innocence. They had nigh become incapable of purity before God, Jer 19:4.
Verse 6 expresses the reason of God’s displeasure against Israel. For both their rulers and the calf gods were set up of their choosing, not that of God, v. 4. Idolatry is folly in the extreme. The calf was to be broken in pieces or destroyed.
Verse 7 announces the reaping of judgment for Israel, with a deadly increase over their sowing, Pro 22:8; Gal 6:7. They made a vain show of worship, while faith and obedience were lacking. Prayers for prosperity, made to an idol calf-god brought the violent whirlwind storm of God’s disapproval and judgment, Hos 10:12-13. The corn sown, shall have no sturdy stalk, and the bud will not grow fit for meal, so that their labors shall be fruitless, in vain, Pro 11:29; Ecc 5:16. The little that is grown shall be seized by foreigners or heathens, while they pine away under judgment for their sins; Pro 29:1.
Verse 8 describes the swallowing up of rebellious Israel by heathen, Gentile nations, as if devoured by wild beasts of prey. They have become as unclean, worthless vessels, dishonored and no longer useful to God, yet too stubborn to return to Him, 2Ch 7:14; Psa 31:12; Jer 22:28; Jer 48:38; 2Ti 2:20
Verse 9 reports the trip to Assyria for a negotiated alliance of friendship with the Gentiles or heathens. Here Israel is compared with a stubborn, obstinate ass, controlled by folly, undisciplined, heady, untamable, as a paramour or lover burning in lust While even wild asses usually keep to themselves, Israel acted more stupid by going up alone to defy God, in seeking an unholy alliance with Assyria, Jer 2:24 Israel was to dwell alone, separated from the heathen and Gentiles by law, Num 23:9; Job 39:5-8. Israel had hired lovers, reversing the ordinary way, that lovers should hire her, Eze 16:33-34.
Verse 10 announces coming sorrow for Ephraim and Israel. They had “hired” or sought to buy friendship from heathen nations who took them as captives to oppress them, not to help, Eze 16:37. For the king and princes under him imposed tribute on them to bring greater sorrow, 2Ki 15:19-20; Isa 10:8.
Verse 11 indicates that God will give them the consequences of their own chosen sins, as just retribution, Pro 1:31. For they had built to themselves “many altars”, in opposition to God’s command that sacrifices were to be offered at the altar in Jerusalem only, Deu 12:3; Deu 12:5-6; Deu 12:13-14. To them their plurality of altars came to be the calf-gods, 1Ki 12:30; 1Ki 13:34.
Verses 12 certifies that Israel could not plead ignorance as a cause for her sins, because God had written,, addressed, the law directly to them, Deu 4:6; Deu 4:8; Psa 119:18; Psa 147:19-20. To count the instructions directed to them as “strange”, or inventions, involved them in the graver sin, for repeatedly it had been taught to them, 2Ki 4:23; Heb 1:1; Rom 3:1-2.
Verse 13 explains that idolatrous Ephraim slew multiplied animals at the heathen altars, as purported gifts to Him, offerings that should have been burnt, they slew, purported to offer to Him, that they might devour the flesh for their own gratification, not as an acknowledgment of their sins. He resolved “now” or immediately to show His rejection of their sacrifices for their iniquities in which they continued as idolators. He, instead, declared that they should be abandoned again into bondage of Egypt, or a bondage like that from which He had once set them free, because of their presumptuous sins, Hos 9:3; Hos 9:6; Hos 11:11, as also formerly threatened, Deu 28:68. His covenant of deliverance was to be suspended for a time of their chastening, Jer chs.43, 44; Hos 9:9; Amo 8:7.
Verses 14 asserts that Israel had forgotten her maker, or disregarded her maker and keeper, and gone a whoring after heathen idols and temples, embracing their gods and worship. And Judah had increased her fortified cities. Both Israel and Judah had come to trust in their own wisdom of the flesh, had deified themselves, above the laws of their God. In judgment there is no safety, no hiding place, except that provided by, or in harmony with the law of the Lord, Deu 32:18; Jer 17:27; Amo 2:5. Instead of turning to God, to make peace, Judah trusted her fenced cities, Isa 22:8; Jer 5:17; Mic 5:10-11. God warned that He would send fire upon Judah’s cities, which He did, including Jerusalem, 2Ki 18:13; and it did devour the “palaces of Jerusalem.” Neither men nor nations can defy God and get by, Gal 6:7-8.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
Interpreters nearly all agree in this, that the Prophet threatens not the kingdom of Israel, but the kingdom of Judah, at the beginning of this chapter, because he names the house of God, which they take to be the temple. I indeed allow, that the Prophet has spoken already, in two places, of the kingdom of Judah, but as it were in passing. He has, it is true, introduced some reproofs and threatening, but so that the distinction was quite clear; and we see that he now goes to the kingdom of Judah, but in the second verse, he names Israel, and yet continues his discourse. To thy mouth, he says, the trumpet, etc. ; and afterwards he adds, To me shall they cry, My God; we know thee, Israel. Here, certainly, the discourse is addressed to the ten tribes. I am therefore by no means induced to explain the beginning of the chapter by applying it to the kingdom of Judah: and I certainly do wonder that interpreters have mistaken in a matter so trifling; for the house of God means not only the temple, but also the whole people. As Israel retained this boast, that they were a people holy to God, and that they were his family, he says, “Put or set the trumpet to thy mouth, and proclaim the war, which is now nigh at hand; for the enemy hastens, who is to attack the house of God, that is, this holy people, who cover themselves with the name of God, and who, trusting in their election and adoption, think that they shall be free from all evils; war shall come as an eagle against this house of God.”
Had the Prophet added any thing which could be referred peculiarly to the kingdom of Judah, I should willingly accede to their opinion, who think that the house of God is the sanctuary. But let the whole context be read, and any one may easily perceive, that the Prophet speaks of Israel no less in the first verse than in the second and third. For, as it has been said, he lays down no difference, but pursues throughout his teaching or discourse in the same strain.
He says first, A trumpet to thy mouth, or, “Set to thy mouth the trumpet.” It is an exhibition, ( hypotyposis;) for we know that God, in order to affect more powerfully the people, clothes his Prophets with various characters. The Prophet then is introduced here as a herald who proclaims war, or a messenger, or by whatever name you may be pleased to call him. Here then the Prophet is commanded, not to speak with his mouth, but to show by the trumpet that war was nigh, as though God himself by his trumpet declared war against Israel, which was to be carried on soon after by earthly enemies. The enemies were soon after to come, and the herald was to come in the usual manner to declare war. The Greeks call them κηρρυκες, proclaimers, we say, “ Les heraux “. As these earthly kings have their proclaimers, or κηρυκες, or heralds, or messengers, who proclaim war; so the Lord sends his Prophet with the usual charge to declare war: “Go then, and let the Israelites know, not now by thy mouth, but even by thy throat, by the sound of the trumpet, that I am an enemy to them, and that I am present with a strong army to destroy them.” It is indeed certain that the Prophet did not use a trumpet; but the Lord by this representations as I have already said increased the reality of what was taught that the Israelites might perceive, that it was not in sport or in play that the Prophet threatened them, but that it was done seriously, as though they now saw the heralds who was to proclaim war; for this was not usually done except when the army is already prepared for battle.
He then says, As an eagle against the house of Jehovah We have already said what the Prophet means by the house of Jehovah, even that people who thought that they would be exempt from every evil, because they had been adopted by the Lord. Hence the Israelites called themselves God’s household; and though under this cover, they impiously and profanely abandoned themselves to every kind of turpitude, yet they thought that they were on the best of terms with God himself. “There shall come,” he says, “a common ruin to you all; this boasting shall not prevent me from taking vengeance at last on your sins.” But he adds As an eagle, that the Israelites might not think that there was to be a long delay; for the impious procrastinate, when they see any danger at hand. Hence, that the Israelites might not continue torpid in their vices, the Prophet says, that the destruction of which he spoke would be like the eagle; for in a moment the eagle goes over an immense distance, and we wonder when we see it over our heads, though a little before it did not appear. So also the Prophet says, that destruction, though not yet seen, was however nigh at hand, that being smitten with terror, though now late, yet as the Lord was thus urging them, they might return to him.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
HOSEAOR GODS AFFECTION FOR AN UNFAITHFUL PEOPLE
Hos 1:1 to Hos 14:9.
IT is our purpose in this series of articles on the Minor Prophets to throw such light upon these twelve Books as to make them meaningful and profitable to our readers. I suppose it may be safely said that the average Christian leaves these Books unstudied, and some of them unreada circumstance due to certain natural difficulties in their interpretation; but in greater measure still, to the poor work of present-day preaching. The custom of taking a text has wrought havoc in Bible study. Our fathers in the ministry were Bible expositors; their successors are textual preachers. The result is described in one of the minor Prophets:
Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the Words of the Lord:
And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the Word of the Lord, and shall not find it (Amo 8:11-12).
There are some simple and yet fundamental facts regarding the prophecy of Hosea that are essential to its proper understanding. It was doubtless written by the man whose name it wears. It refers, unquestionably, to the time of Jeroboam the Second, when Elisha, the Prophet of God, was living, and Isaiah, that great Evangel of the Old Testament, was a babe; and when those kings of Judah Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiahwere successively occupying the throne. The date is supposed to be 790 to 725 B. C.
Hosea was the great Evangel of his time. While he was an Elijah the Tishbite, in his stern denunciation of sin, he was a John the Apostle in his sense of Divine love and his eloquent call to repentance.
Some of the Books of the Bible break easily into divisions, and some of the students of Hosea have seen fit to divide it into two such. But our research does not justify the method. To us it is one grand whole, with not a break in thought from first to last. It is a recital of Israels history in her unfaithfulness, and an illustration of Gods goodness to His own people.
For our convenience, however, we divide it into four sections.
THE SYMBOLISM OF GOMERS SIN
And the Lord said to Hosea, Go, take unto thee a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms: for the land hath committed great whoredom, departing from the Lord.
So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim (Hos 8:2-3).
These opening sentences of Hosea have given no small trouble to students. Some have received it historically; while others have insisted that God could not send the Prophet on any such mission, without Himself being a party to sin; and so have attempted to interpret it as a dream or vision. Following the custom which we have found alone to be safe, we believe with those who accept the Book at what it says. And yet we have not found the question involved so difficult of solution as some. When it is remembered that the whole people of Israel had already turned to idolatry, we can understand that any daughter selected from them could be spoken of in this language, since the charge of whoredom, with the false gods of the land, lay against every son and daughter of Israel. And even when the narrative seems to specifically charge this woman with this sin, it does not necessitate Gods participation in evil because He sends Hosea to wed her. You will see, ere the history ends, she is won to a righteous life again. So the Prophet is to her what he has become to all IsraelGods agent of salvation. But her sin is symbolical.
It was a sin against law and love. The seventh commandment antedated Hosea and stood as a protest against the violation of that relation which husband and wife sustain to one another, as the whole decalogue stands as Gods protest against the violation of the relation which He and His people sustain to each other. When, therefore, Gomer forgets the law and despises the love of Hosea, she fitly represents the conduct of the whole kingdom in forgetting Gods Law and despising the Divine love. The man who, today, living under the reign of grace, disregards the moral Law and tramples it beneath his feet with impunity, is guilty of a crime of the first magnitude. But the man who adds to that an equal disregard of the Divine love takes the last step needful in the contemplation of his folly and the sealing of his fate.
Paul wrote to the Hebrews:
If we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the Truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins,
But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.
He that despised Moses Law died without mercy under two or three witnesses;
Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the Blood of the covenant, wherewith he wets sanctified, an holy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?
For we know Him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto Me, I wilt recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge His people (Heb 10:26-30).
This sin was again symbolical in that it was against good society.
The moment the foundations of domestic life are undermined the whole fabric of society is endangered. When lust assaults the home it strikes the essential pillar of the State. And when it overrides the law and love of domestic relation, it leaves desolation in its track and brings in a dark day for the people. When such a sin as this can be found in the first houses the very nation has fallen. Dr. Talmage said truly enough that where there is no pure home there are the Vandals and the Goths of Europe; the Numidians of Africa, and the Nomads of Asia. No home, no school; no household, no republic; no family, no church.
But Gomers sin became more significant still, God made it to be a sorrowful instruction! Strange as it seems, it is yet probably according to the natural law in the spiritual world that Gods spokesmen must be sufferers. It was only after the iron had entered Moses soul as he watched the oppression of his own people from his position in the palace, and by his enforced exile spent forty years on the back side of the desert that he was eloquent as Israels leader. Joshua was fitted by forty years of wilderness wandering for his great work of commanding Israel and conquering Canaan.
But no man could read this Book of Hosea without feeling that its authorour Prophethad suffered probably as much as either of these great predecessors. Joseph Parker says, Hoseas sorrow was of the deepest kind. The daughter of Diblaim was the daughter of the devil. He had no peace, no rest, no singing joy within the four corners of his own house. He lived in clouds; his life was a continual passage through a sea deeper than the Red Sea. If we may vary the figure, his wandering was in the wilderness, unblessed; cursed by the very spirit of desolation.
And yet we do believe that strong natures have the very power to transmute their sorrows into eloquent appeals for righteousness; that the very intensity of their suffering adds solidity to their thought and eloquence to its utterance. We seriously doubt if Hoseas wife had not been a scarlet woman, as she was, whether he could ever have properly sympathized with God, the Father, in that Israel turned from Him to moral infidelity, by worshiping at false shrines and living wicked, sensual lives.
John Bright, that marvelous leader of thought in England, started on his career of splendid service in consequence of an unspeakable sorrow. His young wife, to whom he was devoted, lay dead when Richard Cobden called on him. Having expressed, as best he could, sympathy and condolence, Cobden looked up and said, Bright, there are thousands and thousands of homes in England, at this moment, where wives and mothers and children are dying of hunger. Now when the first paroxysm of your grief has passed, I would advise you to come with me and we will never rest until the corn-laws are repealed.
Cobden showed himself a philosopher that day. He knew full well that one way to recover from a personal pain was to take into ones heart as an antidote, the pain of the people.
You will remember what had more to do, perhaps, with the declaration of war with Spain than any other single thing, the destruction of the Maine excepted. It was Senator Thurstons speech. And how did it happen that this Nebraskan, who had never before been eloquent, spoke before the Senate of the United States with such an appeal as to move even opponents to agree with him? That speech opened in these words,
Mr. President: I am here by command of silent lips to speak once and for all upon the Cuban situation, and trust that no one has expected anything sensational from me. God forbid that the bitterness of a personal loss should induce me to color, in the slightest degree, the statements that I feel it my duty to make. I shall endeavor to be honest, conservative and just. Then he proceeded with such an oration as American law-makers of any decade seldom, if ever, heard. Concluding with these words, Mr. President, in the cable that moored me to life and hope the strongest strands are broken. I have but little left to offer at the altar of freedoms shrine. But all I have I am glad to give. I am ready to serve my country as best I can in the Senate or in the field. My dearest hope, my most earnest prayer to God is this, that when death comes to end all I may meet it calmly and fearlessly, as did my Beloved, in the cause of humanity, and under the American flag.
There is but one explanation of such an address as that. The eloquence of it was born of the sorrow of burying a beloved wife in Cuban soil, and feeling in his heart that the pain of the oppressed people of that land had been already the occasion of her death; and to relieve it, was worthy the laying down of his life.
The Psalmist said, I was dumb with silence, I held my peace, even from good, and my sorrow was stirred. My heart was hot within me, while I was musing the fire burned: then spake I with my tongue.
It was sorrow. It was that suffering that only a righteous man can feel when sinned against by her whom he loves most, that made Hosea understand the Divine Ones suffering in Israels sin, and adequate to its expression.
PHASES OF ISRAELS INFIDELITY
It found first expression in unwarranted forms. There seems to be a general agreement between students of Hosea that the groves and altars, when first chosen and erected, were unto the Lord. But it does not take long for them to go from unwarranted forms to open infidelity. God did not command any of these at their hands. Her feast days, her new moons, and her Sabbaths, and all her solemn feasts, became occasions of Baal-worship. Instead of saying any longer, Ishimy husband, they turned to say, Baalimy lord. It is the history of unwarranted forms in all ages.
When Christ came into the world He found the Church of the Old Testament cold in death, slain by the hands of ceremonialists,the Scribes and Pharisees of His time,who, with their hollow ritualism and hypocrisies, had driven many men to the infidelity of Sadduceeism; so that they said, There is neither angel nor spirit. Truly, as Frederick Robertson said,
No self-righteous formalism will ever satisfy the Conscience of man; neither will infidelity give rise to a devoted spirit. Formalism in religion and infidelity in conduct often go hand in hand.
Charles Dudley Warner tells us that after having traveled around the world he came back to Brindisi, Italy, a so-called Christian country, and entered a so-called Christian Church to see a figure of Christ, the Crucified One, set off in a dark corner with dust gathered on it, while a representation of Mary, the mother, clad with the latest mode of French millinery, flamed before an altar, and their knees bowed there.
It was little better than the Baal-worship of Hoseas time. And if Jesus should come to that church He would have occasion to utter the words which He once addressed to Scribes and Pharisees.
Thus have ye made the Commandment of God of none effect by your tradition.
Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying,
This people draweth nigh unto Me with their mouth, and honoureth Me with their lips; but their heart is far from Me.
But in vain they do worship Me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.
This degenerate worship was popularized by priest and prince. By reading fourteen verses of the fifth chapter you will see they were its chief patrons. The Prophet of God addressed them Hear ye this, O priests; and hearken, ye House of Israel. Then, after describing their participation in these false and foul ceremonies, he voices God as saying: I will be unto Ephraim as a lion, and as a young lion to the House of Judah: I, even I, will tear and go away: I will take away; and none shall rescue him.
It is a sad day for the Church when the prince, or the man in the place of power, is putrid. It is a darker day when the priest, or the leader in the Church of God, is correspondingly corrupt. When the time came that Tetzel could sell indulgences, with the consent of the priesthood of Rome, the very moral rottenness existing in the Name of Jesus, compelled the Reformation, and gave rise to Luthers opinions, and victory to his appeal. And when, at the present time, a Pastor, either by evil practices, leads his people into iniquity, or by his silence concerning the commercial and other sins of those who contribute to his salary, connives at iniquity, the condition becomes akin to that which Hosea was raised up to rebuke nearly three thousand years ago. And the result for the present day will be the very same as that which came to the Israel of Hoseas time.
It produced the grossest idolatry and immorality.
There is not time to read to you these chapters,4 to 13,but if there were, the reading would only profit you by giving you pain as you looked upon Israels open sore.
It was this principle that Hosea saw and clearly stated so many, many centuries ago,namely, when men become lawless, and are libertines, they cannot hope to keep women upon a plane of chastity and holiness. God distinctly declares that He would not punish their daughters for their sins, in view of the conditions of society, for which priest, prince and peasant were responsible.
George Adam Smith reminds us that history in many periods has confirmed the justice of Hoseas observations, and by one strong voice after another, enforced his terrible warnings. The experience of ancient Persia and Egypt, the languor of the Greek cities, the deep weariness and sated lust which in Imperial Rome made human life a hell. It is only another illustration of the Apostle James words,When lust hath conceived, it bring eth forth sin; and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death (Joe 1:15).
THE FOLLY WHICH INFIDELITY EFFECTS
There can be traced in this volume a striking parallelism between the conduct of the individual and of the nation. Gomers treatment of Hosea was Israels treatment of God.
There is a supreme insensibility to undeserved favor. The Prophet says, She did not know that I gave her corn, etc.
Insensibility to Divine favor has often marked the conduct of man. We easily forget that every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of Lights. We quickly attribute our blessings to our own ingenuity, to the bounty of nature, or to luck, and just as easily forget Godthe Giver of all. Strange isnt it that the one creature made in His image, endowed with the highest faculties, blessed of Him thousands of times beyond all other works of His hands, should be insensible to what he had received, and to what he is receiving, and know not God gave corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied * * silver and gold.
If this spirit were all in the world it were not so bad; but Gomer is the Prophets wife, and Israel is espoused of God; and this insensibility to Divine favor has smitten the Church, and her children forget Me, saith the Lord. Sam Jones had a man come to him who said, Jones, the church is putting my assessment too high. How much do you pay? asked Jones. Five dollars a year, was the reply. Well, said Jones, how long have you been converted? About four years. What did you do before you were converted? I was a drunkard. How much were you worth? I rented land, and was plowing with a steer. What have you got now? I have a good plantation and a pair of horses. Well, said Jones, you paid the devil two hundred and fifty dollars a year for the privilege of plowing a steer on rented land, and now you dont want to give the God who saved you five dollars a year for the privilege of plowing your own horses on your own plantation. Insensibility to Divine favor! Moses had occasion for that passage in his song, They have corrupted themselves, their spot is not the spot of his children: they are a perverse and crooked generation. Do ye thus requite the Lord, O foolish people and unwise? is not He thy Father that hath bought thee? hath He not made thee, and established thee? (Deu 32:5-6).
They were slow to realize the Divine intent of judgment. After announcing His purpose in judgment, I will be unto Ephraim as a lion, and as a young lion to the House of Judah: I, even I, will tear and go away; I will take away, and none shall rescue him (Hos 5:14). The Lord reveals His reasons by adding, I will go and return to My place, till they acknowledge their offence, and seek My face: in their affliction they will seek Me early (Hos 5:15). Deliverance is always the Divine purpose in Gods judgments against His people. The Psalmist said, Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept Thy Word. And it was only after the Lord had visited them with judgment that Israel could say, Come, and let us return unto the Lord: for He hath torn, and He will heal us; He hath smitten, and He will bind us up (Hos 6:1).
But, like sinners of all ages, Ephraim must be smitten, her root dried up, so that they shall bear no fruit, and they realize themselves utterly cast away because they did not hearken unto the Lord. It is only after Israel hath destroyed herself that she realizes the source of life in God.
How strikingly this experience parallels that of weak men in all ages! Only when the prodigal, clothed in rags, starved to the point of sustenance on the honeysuckle, and sitting with the swine, does he come to himself. As a rule, the man that follows the lusts of the flesh, and goes the way of the libertine, or the drunkard, never sees the meaning of the Divine judgment until his sins have slain his manhood, wrecked his business, scattered his family, consumed his flesh, and left him as perfectly stranded as was ever a vessel when driven high upon the ragged rocks. It is amazing to study the folly of men who have departed from the Lord! Almost universally they are conceited up to the very day when they are undone. They think that they are going to recover themselves. Like Ephraim, strangers have devoured their strength, and they know it not: gray hairs are here and there upon them, and yet they know it not. They feed on the wind and follow after the east wind, and daily increase in desolation. They make a covenant with the Assyrians and boast their righteousness as Ephraim did, saying, In all my labours they shall find none iniquity in me that were sin.
God can do nothing else with such men than to bring them low; nothing else than to whelm them with sorrow; nothing else than to strike them to the very earth with judgment; for they must be made to see that their condition is not due to circumstances, but to an evil spirit.
Dr. Chapman tells the story of a woman who was seated in Central Park, New York, with her little child playing about her. Suddenly the child was startled by the barking of a dog. In her frightened state she ran into her mothers arms. When the dog ceased his barking she said, Why are you frightened, dear; he is quiet? Oh, yes, I know, mamma; but the bark is still in him.
One thing always being said by unregenerate men is, If I could only remove to a new location; settle myself with new associates, and in new business employment, I would be all right. All right! And yet evil still in you! Better turn over to Gal 5:19-21, and read, Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like What one needs is not a change of location, but a change of nature, so that the incoming of the Holy Spirit shall give you the fruits of the Spirit which are love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.
Such folly is followed only by shame and degradation. The tenth chapter of Hosea illustrates the consequences of Israels conduct.
Israel is an empty vine, he bringeth forth fruit unto himself: according to the multitude of his fruit he hath increased the altars; according to the goodness of his land they have made goodly images.
Their heart is divided: now shall they be found faulty: he shall break down their altars, he shall spoil their images.
For now they shall say, We have no king, because we feared not the Lord; what then should a king do to us?
They have spoken words, swearing falsely in making a covenant: thus judgment springeth up as hemlock in the furrows of the field.
The inhabitants of Samaria shall fear because of the calves of Beth-aven: for the people thereof shalt mourn over it, and the priests thereof that rejoiced on it, for the glory thereof, because it is departed from it.
It shall be also carried into Assyria for a present to King Jareb: Ephraim shall receive shame, and Israel shall be ashamed of his own counsel.
As for Samaria, her king is cut off as the foam upon the water.
The high places also of Aven, the sin of Israel, shall be destroyed: the thorn and the thistle shall come up on their altars; and they shall say to the mountains, Cover us; and to the hills, Fall on us.
O Israel, thou hast sinned from the days of Gibeah: there they stood: the battle in Gibeah against the children of iniquity did not overtake them.
It is in My desire that I should chastise them; and the people shall be gathered against them, when they shall bind themselves in their two furrows.
And Ephraim is as an heifer that is taught, and loveth to tread out the corn; but I passed over upon her fair neck: I will make Ephraim to ride; Judah shall plow, and Jacob shall break his clods.
Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the Lord, till He come and rain righteousness upon you.
Ye have plowed wickedness, ye have reaped iniquity; ye have eaten the fruit of lies: because thou didst trust in thy way, in the multitude of thy mighty men.
Therefore shall a tumult arise among thy people, and all thy fortresses shall be spoiled, as Shahnan spoiled Betharbel in the day of battle: the mother was dashed in pieces upon her children.
So shall Beth-el do unto you because of your great wickedness; in a morning shall the king of Israel utterly be cut off.
In conclusion we pass to
GODS AFFECTION FOR AN UNFAITHFUL PEOPLE
That affection was expressed in undeserved words and acts. God bares His heart here as He has often done before, crying,
O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? O Judah, what shall I do unto thee? for your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away (Hos 6:4),
When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called My son out of Egypt,
I taught Ephraim also to go, taking them by their arms; but they knew not that I healed them.
I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love: and I was to them as they that take off the yoke on their jaws, and I laid meat unto them (Hos 11:1; Hos 11:3-4).
How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? how shall I deliver thee, Israel? how shall I make thee as Admah? how shall I set thee as Zeboim? Mine heart is turned within Me, My repentings are kindled together.
I will not execute the fierceness of Mine anger, I will not return to destroy Ephraim: for I am God, and not man; the Holy One in the midst of thee: and I will not enter into the city (Hos 11:8-9).
Beloved, one lesson that it seems difficult to learn is thisto remember the goodness of God. One should adopt the custom of thinking upon Divine favor. It is only as we forget the source of our blessings, of every good and perfect gift that we grow indifferent to the grace of our God.
Dr. Torrey says, I was talking one night to one who was apparently most indifferent and hardened. She told me the story of her sin, with seemingly very little sense of shame, and when I urged her to accept Christ, she simply refused. I put a Bible in her hands and asked her to read this verse. She began to read, God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, and before she had finished reading the verse she had broken into tears, softened by the thought of Gods wondrous love to her.
It is a strange thing that more people dont answer temptation as did Joseph,How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?
When God executes judgment it is commonly for the purpose of correction. Take the reference in this volume,
Therefore will I return, and take away My com in the time thereof, and My wine in the season thereof, and will recover My wool and My flax given to cover her nakedness,
And now will I discover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and none shall deliver her out of Mine hand,
I will also cause all her mirth to cease, her feast days, her new moons, and her Sabbaths, and all her solemn feasts, And I will destroy her vines and her fig trees, whereof she hath said, These are my rewards that my lovers have given me: and I will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field shall eat them,
And I will visit upon her the days of Baalim, wherein she burned incense to them, and she decked herself with her earrings and her jewels, and she went after her lovers, and for gat Me, saith the Lord (Hos 2:9-13).
What is the purpose? He immediately proceeds to tell us, Therefore(God never employs that word without occasionit is the great conjunction with Him.)
Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her,
And I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope: and she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt (Hos 2:14-15).
Beloved, there is a beneficent purpose when the fiery trial is on. The very whips with which He makes Israels back to bleed are not the expressions of His wrath; but, rather, of His love.
Henry Ward Beecher declares that his father used to make him believe that the end of the rod that he held in his hand was a great deal more painful than the end which he applied to Henry. And the great preacher says, It was a strange mystery to me; but I did believe it, and it seemed a great deal worse to me to be whipped on that account.
It ought to be so with the children of God. I once had in my church a woman who punished her children by vicarious suffering. When they misbehaved at the table she denied herself a meal, and she told me that it broke their hearts.
Would to God that we were as sensitive to the suffering which our sin imposes upon the Heavenly Father, and as sensible concerning the purpose which He has in visiting correction against our sins.
But, after all, God gave best evidence of His affection by,
Keeping for His people an open heart. I like to dwell on the last chapter of this Book,
O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God; * *
Take with you words, and turn to the Lord: say unto Him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously (Hos 14:1-2).
And I like to listen to Gods answer to this cry which He Himself seeks to put into their lips,
I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for Mine anger is turned away from him.
I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon.
His branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive tree, and his smell as Lebanon.
Ephraim shall say, What have I to do any more with idols? (Hos 14:4-6; Hos 14:8).
It is a beautiful picture! It ought to encourage the children whose hearts have departed from the plain paths of privilege in Christ; it ought to incite hope in the heart of the individual who has played the prodigal and paid the penalty.
I like to reflect upon the words of that sweet-spirited man, F. B. Meyer, as he speaks of Gods attitude toward those who turn again to Him, saying,
Be sure that God will give you a hearty welcome. He has not given you up or ceased to love you. He longs for you. Read the last chapter of the Book of Hosea, which may be well called the backsliders gospel. Read the third chapter of Jeremiah, and let the plaintive pleadings to return soak into your spirit. Read the story of Peters fall and restoration, and let your tears fall thick and fast on John 21: as you learn how delicately the Lord forgave, and how generously He entrusted the backslider with His sheep and with His lambs. Be sure that though your repeated failures and sins have worn out every one else, they have not exhausted the infinite love of God. He tells us to forgive our offending brother unto four hundred and ninety times; how much oftener will He not forgive us? According to the height of heaven above the earth, so great is His mercy.
Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.
Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley
CRITICAL NOTES.
Hos. 8:1.] Abruptness indicating sudden judgment. Eagle] Swift and alarming (Deu. 28:49). He] Shalmanezer, king of Assyria. House] Not the temple, nor land, but Israel viewed as the residence of God and one family (Num. 12:7; Jer. 12:7).
HOMILETICS
A CORRUPT CHURCH.Hos. 8:1
Judgment is again threatened upon Israel for their sins. They were corrupt notwithstanding all profession to the contrary. They had forsaken God and cast off all good; they had changed the civil government, and maintained the golden calf, and were bringing upon them destruction swift and sure. Taking the house of God as meaning the family of Israel, the professed people of God, we have a corrupt Church endangered and warned.
I. The sins of a corrupt Church. They have transgressed my covenant, and trespassed against my law.
1. The covenant was broken. In condescension God made a covenant with them, to which they consented, and for the keeping of which he promised them rewards. They transgressed not the mere command, but their own original contract; revolted from their allegiance; and in effect declared that they would no longer be Gods chosen people. They acted foolishly and deceitfully.
2. The law was transgressed. Divine authority was disregarded. Their sins were malignant and defied the bounds of law. All sin is lawless. When men break their own, Gods laws cannot bind them. Those who have no respect for human stipulations will have no regard for Divine covenants. Israel were the professed children of God, yet how grievously they sinned. God help me, my own children have forsaken me, cried James II. He could bear the defection of a kingdom and the desertion of an army, but burst into tears and wept in agony at the disloyalty of his family.
II. The danger of a corrupt Church. 1. Its sins are great. The sins of a people who profess much, the defections of a Church which belongs to God, are more aggravating than ordinary transgressions. Israel were guilty of apostasy from God and sins against their neighbour. The Church can have no pretence of ignorance, nothing to excuse or extenuate her sins. She has the covenant, the law, and the gospel. Woe unto thee, Chorazin; woe unto thee, Bethsaida, &c.
2. Its danger is imminent. He shall come as an eagle against the house of the Lord. Their fair titles and exalted privileges will not keep off the stroke. Enemies are ever prepared to execute judgments. The eagles gather where the carcass is found. The destruction is(a) near, (b) swift, (c) certain, and (d) violent. Swift as an eagle swooping on its prey does retribution come upon false professors and conventional churches (Deu. 28:49; Isa. 5:26).
III. The warning of a corrupt Church. Set the trumpet to thy mouth. So God bids Isaiah, Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet. As the sound of a war-trumpet would startle a sleeping army, so God would have religious teachers to rouse a sleeping Church. They are watchmen, and must warn of coming judgments. There must be no cowardly silence, when the house of God is imperilled by sin and destruction. Augustine prayed, Lord, deliver me from other mens sins. David cried, Deliver me from blood-guiltiness. Men are asleep, and the danger is nigh. The trumpet must neither be silent nor give any uncertain sound. Then whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet, and taketh not warning; if the sword come and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
ISRAELS INGRATITUDETHE LORDS LAMENT
TEXT: Hos. 8:1-7
1
Set the trumpet to thy mouth. As an eagle he cometh against the house of Jehovah, because they have transgressed my covenant, and trespassed against my law.
2
They shall cry unto me, My God, we Israel know thee.
3
Israel hath cast off that which is good: the enemy shall pursue him.
4
They have set up kings, but not by me; they have made princes, and I knew it not: of their silver and their gold they have made them idols, that they may be cut off.
5
He hath cast off thy calf, O Samaria; mine anger is kindled against them: how long will it be ere they attain to innocency?
6
For from Israel is even this; the workman made it, and it is no God; yea, the calf of Samaria shall be broken in pieces.
7
For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind; he hath no standing grain; the blade shall yield no meal; if so be it yield, strangers shall swallow it up.
QUERIES
a.
Who is coming as an eagle against the house of Jehovah?
b.
How did they set up kings but not by Jehovah?
c.
What does sow the wind . . . reap the whirlwind mean?
PARAPHRASE
The trumpet to thy mouth! Like an eagle upon the house of Jehovah! Judgment approaches because they have thrown off covenant relationship with Me and they have violated My laws. When these times of distress come, the people will hypocritically call upon Me to help them, professing that they know Me. But Israel does not know Me because He has abhorred and ignored the good way of God; and as a result a ruthless enemy shall overrun his land. They rebelled against My government and placed usurpers on the throne against My will. They have taken of the wealth I blessed them with and made idols in spite of My warning that I would judge them for such apostasy. Your calf-idol is loathsome and disgusting to Me, Samaria, and My anger burns toward you because of it. How long will it be until you divest yourself of this loathsome idolatryhow long can you go on living in such impurity? What makes it so abominable is Israel, the nation whom the living God chose to reveal the truth about idols, has engaged in the lies of idolatry. Israel, of all people, ought to know that idols made by the hands of men are no gods! They will know soon enough that their golden calf is no go for I will break it to pieces like I did the one at Sinai. They have sown the winds of folly and vanity, but they shall reap the whirlwinds of wrath and destruction. Israels crops will fail; none of its grain crops will mature enough to produce any grainthere shall be great famine. Even if some were fortunate enough to produce a few heads of grain, the enemy that is about to come upon Israel would take it away from them and eat it themselves.
SUMMARY
In this chapter the prophet Hosea gives Gods reasons for the imminent destruction of the northern kingdom; moral, religious and political rebellion against Jehovah God when she knew better.
COMMENT
Hos. 8:1 . . . TRUMPET . . . AS AN EAGLE . . . AGAINST THE HOUSE OF JEHOVAH . . . G Campbell Morgan says, This chapter is dramatic in its method. It opens with two clarion cries; and our translators have just a little robbed the passage of its arresting character by the introduction of certain words, in order to euphony, and the making of smooth reading and sense. There is no such word as Set in the Hebrew text herethat word has been supplied by the translators. Neither are the words, he cometh, a part of the Hebrew text. Actually, the imperativeness of the call is more impressive with the supplied words omitted (as in our Paraphrase).
This eagle was undoubtedly a pictorialization of the successive kings of Assyria who swooped down upon Israel just a few short years after Hosea pronounced Gods judgment upon her. One cannot help but remember the warning of Moses in Deu. 28:49 in the same words as these. Moses warned them if they should forget God and break the covenant and violate the revealed law of God, a nation from afar, swift as the eagle, would come upon them and destroy them. Transgressing Gods covenant is much more personal than mere violation of some written statutes. To break covenant is to personally distrust and despise the One with whom you have the covenant. It is a matter of the heart and soul. This, of course, would manifest itself in scorn and disobedience to written laws of God.
Hos. 8:2 THEY SHALL CRY . . . MY GOD, WE ISRAEL KNOW THEE . . . When the ruthless, blood-thirsty, Assyrian hordes swoop down upon Israel, they shall instinctively call upon the God whom they have depised all these years for help. They will plead, We know thee! For centuries now they have refused to have Jehovah in their knowledge . . . they have been exchanging the truth of God for lies. But they should have sought the Lord when He could be found and have called upon Him when He was near (cf. Isa. 55:6). Now it is too late, for although Israel spread forth its hands and make many prayers, God will hide His eyes and will not listen (cf. Isa. 1:15). They should have thought that a man cannot be a friend of the world and a friend of God at the same time (cf. Jas. 4:1-10). We remember the words of the Lord Jesus, Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven . . . (Mat. 7:21). It is with the heart that man believes unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation (Rom. 10:9-10), but he must believe with the heart as well as make confession with the mouththis Israel did not do. In connection with this verse we remember the candid statement of the apostle John, And by this we may be sure that we know him, if we keep his commandments. He who says I know him but disobeys his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him. (1Jn. 2:3-4). Israel cried, My God, we Israel know thee, but Israel was a liar! What an affront to God even today for those self-willed, sensual-living people who flagrantly disregard the commandments of God, cry, in times of distress, My God, we know thee. They are liars and the truth is not in them. God is known only through keeping His commandments! There simply is no other way to know God! It should be very obvious to any intelligent person that Gods commandments are found only in the Bible and for this age in the New Testament.
Hos. 8:3-4 ISRAEL HATH CAST OFF THAT WHICH IS GOOD . . . THEY HAVE SET UP KINGS, BUT NOT BY ME . . . THEY HAVE MADE THEM IDOLS . . . Israel refused to have God in their knowledge . . . she exchanged the truth of God for a lie (cf. Rom. 1:18 ff). Israels deliberate rejection of the good way is exactly like that of Judah described by Jeremiah (Jer. 6:16-19)! Israel refused to stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls. They said, we will not walk in it. Israel has cast off the good way of God for the way of idolatry that is abominable. Very soon now the worthlessness of what she has chosen will be demonstrated. Refusing the way of God in religion they also rejected His counsel in politics. This is what is happening in America, the beautiful! Men in high places have cast off the good . . . they have set up kings, but not by Jehovah. Men have tried to rule without the counsel of God and since they have ignored all His counsel, He will laugh at their calamity and mock when panic strikes (cf. Pro. 1:24 ff). During 253 years, for which the kingdom of Israel lasted, 18 kings reigned over it, out of ten different families and every one of them came to a violent end. Not once was the will of God sought in the rule of any of these kings. Even Jehu conducted his reign contrary to the will of God. The nation of Israel, so abundantly blessed by Jehovah, took of this abundance and fashioned by their own hands, gods after the likeness of pagan idols. The god of this world, Satan, blinded their eyes with deceit and pride, and Israel loved it to be so. We quote here from the ISBE, Vol. III, pg. 1448:
The special enticements to idolatry as offered by these various cults were found in their deification of natural forces and their appeal to primitive human desires, esp. the sexual; also through associations produced by intermarriage and through the appeal to patriotism, when the help of some cruel deity was sought in time of war. Baal and Astarte worship, which was esp. attractive, was closely associated with fornication and drunkenness (Amo. 2:7-8; 1Ki. 14:23 ff), and also greatly to magic and soothsaying (e.g. Isa. 2:6; Isa. 3:2; Isa. 8:19).
Sacrifices to the idols were offered by fire (Hos. 4:13); libations were poured out (Isa. 57:6; Jer. 7:18); the first-fruits of the earth and tithes were presented (Hos. 2:8); tables of food were set before them (Isa. 65:11); the worshippers kissed the idols or threw them kisses (1Ki. 19:18; Hos. 13:2; Job. 31:27); stretched out their hands in adoration (Isa. 44:20); knelt or prostrated themselves before them and sometimes danced about the altar, gashing themselves with knives (1Ki. 18:26-28).
The consequences of Israels idolatry are so certain it seems as if Israel had intended it to be so. She is in a head-long plunge into destruction and does not seem to want it otherwise!
Hos. 8:5 . . . HOW LONG WILL IT BE ERE THEY ATTAIN TO INNOCENCY? The origin of calf-worship among the Semites probably goes back beyond Abraham. The origin of animal worship is hidden in obscurity, but reverence for the bull and the cow is widespread among the most ancient historic cults, The ancient Babylonian culture (from which Abrahams ancestors came) revered the bull as the symbol of their greatest gods, Anu and Sin and Marduk. Hadad-rimmon, an Amorite deity, is pictured standing on the back of a bull. In Phoenicia, northern Syria, Moab, and other places the goddess Ishtar has the cow for her symbol, and when this nude or half-nude goddess appears in Palestine she often stands on a bull or cow. With the Hebrews calf-worship began, of course, with Aaron (cf. Exodus 32). It was perpetuated by Jeroboam I in the northern kingdom for political and economic reasons (1Ki. 12:26-33; 2Ch. 10:14-15).
In the light of their deep involvements in unholy alliances and unspiritual procedure, a logical question is raised: How long will it be ere they attain to innocency? How long are they incapable of purity of walk before the Lord, instead of abominations of idolatry. That is to say, being bent upon backsliding, having invested so heavily of their gold and silver in idols, having defied the infinite God in their politics, having rejected the commands of the Lord, having hardened their hearts against the prophets message, how long would it require for them to extricate themselves? How long before they would detach themselves from unrighteousness? Israel had become like the thing they loved? (Hos. 9:10). We shall deal with this principle later but here it is evident that Israel has so long loved and imitated its detestable gods it has thoroughly and irrevocably contaminated itself.
Hos. 8:6 . . . THE WORKMAN MADE IT, AND IT IS NO GOD; . . . What makes idolatry so abominable in Israel is that she, of all nations, should have known that an idol is no god. Israel had the special revelations of God in word and deed to demonstrate the nothingness of idols. What folly! What vanity! Isaiah satirically speaks of the same phenomena (Isa. 41:21-24; Isa. 44:6-22). The great apostle to the Gentiles had to deal with this as he preached to the heathen (cf. Act. 19:26; 1Co. 8:4 ff, etc.). Men still deify images, philosophies and things in this twentieth century. What difference if it be a figurine or a philosophyit is still idolatry. Any image, thing or idea that is worshipped becomes an idol. Even covetousness is idolatry!
Hos. 8:7 . . . THEY SOW THE WIND, . . . THEY SHALL REAP THE WHIRLDWIND . . . The Nation of Israel sowed their wild oats. They were sowing (putting their trust in) vain things, empty, useless things. This was their crop. Now they were about to reap the harvest of continued sowing of vanitiesthe harvest would be a whirlwind of destruction and disillusionment. Temporal things cannot satisfy (Ecc. 1:17; Ecc. 2:12-17; Ecc. 2:4-11; Ecc. 6:2-9). Worldly things never bring rewarding harvest days of joy, peace, fulfillment, satisfaction, holiness. But more serious than that, God has so built His universe that when men sin and pervert even those things of the world, innocent enough in themselves, they will reap a whirlwind of destruction, unhappiness, disillusionment, strife and the judgment and eternal wrath of God. When Gods physical laws are violated, trouble comes! When Gods spiritual laws are violated, trouble comes! Israel was doing both!
God was going to bring some sort of calamity upon Israel to keep her from producing a wheat crop. If by chance a few grains of wheat should reach fruition, the enemy God was about to turn loose upon Israel would consume all that. All those material abundances in which Israel gloried and which she attributed to her false gods were about to be taken away. Perhaps then she would repent.
QUIZ
1.
Where are the Hebrew people warned that if they should transgress Gods law an enemy, swift as the eagle, would come upon them?
2.
Why is transgressing Gods covenant so serious?
3.
How do we know Israel did not know God?
4.
Describe calf-worship.
5.
What is meant by the phrase how long will it be ere they attain to innocency?
6.
Why should Israel know that an idol is no god?
ISRAELS INGRATITUDETHE LORDS LAMENT
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(1) Eagle.The image of swiftness (Jer. 4:13; Jer. 48:40). So Assyria shall come swooping down on Samaria, to which Hosea, though with some irony, gives the name House of Jehovah, recognising that the calf was meant to be symbolic in some sense of Israels God. (See, however, Note on Hos. 9:15.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
After this general announcement the prophet proceeds to call attention to the imminence of the judgment (Hos 8:1), to describe the terror that will befall Israel (Hos 8:2), and to point out the futility of the appeal for deliverance (Hos 8:3).
Set the trumpet to thy mouth Literally, to thy palate the horn. Palate is equivalent to mouth (as in Job 8:7; Pro 5:3, etc.). On horn see on Hos 5:8. The appeal is to the watchman to give the signal of alarm because the enemy is approaching (compare Amo 3:6). The second exclamation is, literally, “As an eagle against the house of Jehovah.” The thought is evidently that the enemy, on account of whose approach the signal is to be sounded, is coming with the swiftness of an eagle, or vulture (see on Mic 1:16). Wellhausen suggests to read without any change in the consonants apart from a different division “for” or “because” an eagle (comes against the house of Jehovah), instead of “as” an eagle; thus bringing out the causal relation existing between the first and the second clauses. G.A. Smith adds the pertinent comment, “Where the carcass is, there are the eagles gathered together.” As already suggested, the enemy is undoubtedly the Assyrian (compare Jer 49:22; Eze 17:3).
House of Jehovah Not as commonly, the temple, but, as in Hos 9:15, the land of Israel. A similar expression, house of Omri, equivalent to land of Omri, is found in the Assyrian inscriptions. 1b sums up the accusations against Israel, thus supplying the reasons for the advance of the executioner.
Covenant Since it stands in parallelism with law it is probably equivalent to ordinance (Jer 11:6); these ordinances were based on the covenant established between Jehovah and Israel at Mount Sinai.
Law See on Hos 4:6. The impending doom will drive the people to Jehovah, temporarily at least; in their calamity they will cry unto Jehovah.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
IMMINENCE OF THE JUDGMENT IN THE FORM OF AN INVASION, Hos 7:16 to Hos 8:3.
Israel has proved a disappointment; defiantly it persists in rebellion, therefore judgment has become inevitable indeed, it is rapidly approaching. Hos 7:16 to Hos 8:3, deals with the crisis that is imminent. The deep emotion of the prophet is indicated by the rapidity with which he moves from one thought to another.
Their princes shall fall All the eighth century prophets insist that the ruling classes are largely to blame for the prevalent corruption, therefore the first blow will fall upon them.
Rage of their tongue The word translated rage has received various translations and interpretations: roughness, deception, boasting, mockery, skepticism, insolence, bitterness, etc. The most satisfactory is probably “insolence,” that is, toward Jehovah. “The root meaning is to make a grumbling sound, like an irritated camel.” They have taken an insolent attitude toward Jehovah, hence he must vindicate himself by their overthrow.
This The overthrow of the princes.
Their derision in the land of Egypt Their false friends in the land of Egypt will laugh at them in scorn. Why the reference to Egypt? The eighth century prophets saw in Assyria the divinely commissioned executioner of judgment; the sword, therefore, should probably be understood as the sword of Assyria. During the same period the policy of Egypt was to incite, by promises of support, rebellion against Assyria among the nations throughout Syria and Palestine. The scheme was to keep the Assyrian armies busy, and thus prevent their advance against Egypt. Trusting in Egyptian promises, the nations frequently rebelled, but in the hour of need Egypt usually failed her allies; she looked on, laughing, while the nations suffered for their folly. This the prophet declares will happen now. It is quite possible that just at this time the Egyptian party in Israel was becoming prominent, favoring an alliance with Egypt and the throwing off of the obligations assumed by Menahem. New foreign entanglements the prophet condemns; he announces the speedy advance of Assyria, describes the overthrow of the vacillating princes, and pictures the derision with which Egypt will watch the humiliation of Israel. There is not sufficient reason for regarding “this shall be their derision” as a gloss, and for connecting “in the land of Egypt” with the preceding, so as to read, “The insolence of their tongue in the land of Egypt” that is, the insolence manifesting itself in the negotiations carried on with Egypt.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘The ram’s horn to your mouth!
Like an eagle he comes against the house of YHWH,
Because they have transgressed my covenant,
And trespassed against my law.
The opening lines are brief and to the point, being literally:
‘ “The ram’s horn to your mouth!” Like an eagle against the house of YHWH’
In other words the prophet is to sound the alarm (compare Hos 5:8; Amo 3:6) because in vision the eagle has been sighted , and it is coming against ‘the house of YHWH’. This does not refer to the Jerusalem Temple for that Temple is nowhere under consideration by Hosea, nor does it refer to the Temple at Bethel (or even in Samaria) which were never described as houses of YHWH. Rather ‘YHWH’s house’ is either the land of Israel (Hos 9:15) or the people of Israel (Hos 1:4; Hos 1:6; Hos 5:1; Hos 6:10).
The picture of the eagle swiftly descending on its prey (which is ‘the silly dove’ – Hos 7:11) is taken from Deu 28:49. It is a part of the Deuteronomic curses on those who ‘do not observe His commandments or His statutes’ (Deu 28:15). Compare also the picture in Ezekiel 17. And here it comes on those who ‘have transgressed My covenant and trespasses against My Law’. It was because Israel were neglecting God’s requirements as laid down by the covenant of Sinai (see Hos 4:2) that they would now be snatched away from their land.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
When The Enemy Descend Like An Eagle Because They Have Broken The Covenant And Cast Off What Is Good, Israel Will Cry In Vain, ‘”O God Of Israel We Know You” ( Hos 8:1-3 ).
The present hopelessness of Israel’s current situation comes out strongly here. The enemy are coming against them like an eagle descending on its prey (compare Deu 28:49), and this because they have broken the covenant and disobeyed His Law. So desperate will the situation be that Israel will appeal to YHWH on the grounds that He is their God and known to them. But it will do them no good because they have ‘cast off what is good’, that is have rejected Him, His covenant and His ways. Therefore all that remains is for them to be effectively pursued by their enemy (compare Deu 28:22; Deu 28:45;
Analysis of Hos 8:1-3 .
“The ram’s horn to your mouth!” Like an eagle he comes against the house of YHWH. (Hos 8:1 a).
Because they have transgressed my covenant, and trespassed against my law (Hos 8:1 b).
To me they will cry, “O God of Israel, we know you” (Hos 8:2).
Israel has cast off what is good (Hos 8:3 a).
The enemy will pursue him (Hos 8:3 b).
Note that in ‘a’ the eagle will some against the house of YHWH (the people of Israel), and in the parallel the enemy will pursue them. In ‘b’ they have transgressed His covenant and trespassed against His Law, and in the parallel they have cast off what is good. Centrally in ‘c’ they make their false and hypocritical cry to YHWH.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
ISRAEL’S GROWING SPIRITUAL BANKRUPTCY AND DEGRADED BEHAVIOUR ARE DESCRIBED ALONG WITH THEIR RELIANCE ON IDOLS, FOREIGNERS, UNWORTHY KINGS AND THEMSELVES, AND THIS IN CONTRAST WITH YHWH’S STEADFAST LOVE FOR HIS FAILING SON ( Hos 6:4 to Hos 11:12 ).
Hosea continues to describe the condition in which Israel find themselves, and rebukes their reliance on other things than YHWH. Conditions in Israel would appear to be politically much worse, and these words were therefore probably mainly spoken during the years of turmoil following the death of Menahem and his son Pekahiah, that is, during the reigns of Pekah and Hoshea. During this period there was an off-on relationship with Assyria which eventually caused the downfall of Pekah and the initial submission of Hoshea to Assyria, followed by his later turning to Egypt (and not to YHWH) in the hope of breaking free from Assyria’s yoke.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
The Judgment Announced
v. 1. Set the trumpet to thy mouth, v. 2. Israel shall cry unto Me, v. 3. Israel hath cast off the thing that is good, v. 4. They have set up kings, but not by Me, v. 5. Thy calf, O Samaria, hath cast thee off, v. 6. For from Israel was it also, v. 7. For they have sown the wind,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
EXPOSITION
This chapter deals with the punishment of apostasy. Once more the sins of the northern kingdom are enumerated and its approaching fall predicted. There is a close connection between the verses in the first section of the chapter. That connection is as follows: The first verse begins with an exclamation containing Jehovah’s command to the prophet to act as his herald, putting the trumpet to his mouth and sounding the alarm about coming calamity. In the second clause of the same verse the nature of the calamity is announced. In the third and last clause of it the cause of the calamity is declared. The second verse represents Israel in their extremity crying to God for deliverance; the cry is very earnest, and proceeds from every member of the community, backed also with the assertion of their acquaintance with Jehovah. In the third verse Jehovah rejects their cry and refuses to interpose between them and the enemy, because their knowledge of him was merely historical and neither spiritual nor practical, as their dislike of what was good continued unabated. The fourth verse specifies facts in proof of Israel’s renunciation of Jehovah. The fifth verse shows a just retribution, for, inasmuch as Israel disliked what was good, the object of their idolatry has disgusted Jehovah or cast them off. The sixth verse contains the doom of this silly, sinful, and disgusting idol. In the seventh verse the threat of such destruction is accounted for on a broad principle taken from agricultural life, that the harvest will correspond to the seed sown; and so Israel shall reap the fruit of their ungodliness.
Hos 8:1
The exclamation in this verse, A trumpet to thy mouth, supersedes the necessity of supplying a verb. The alarm of war or of hostile invasion is to be sounded by the prophet at the command of Jehovah. The
(1) trumpet is at once to be employed for the purpose. The rendering of both the Targum and Syriac
(2) expresses the same idea, though under a different form; the former has, “Cry with thy throat, as if it were a trumpet;” and the latter, “Let thy mouth be as a trumpet.” According to this view, the Prophet Hoses expresses here very briefly what Isaiah has done more fully in the words, “Cry aloud [Hebrew, ‘with the throat’] spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.”
(3) The LXX. here deviates considerably from the Maseoretic Hebrew text, translating () , , of the meaning of which Jerome acknowledges his ignorance, though he attempts to explain it. Cyril connects the words with the concluding part of the preceding chapter, thus: “This their setting at naught (of me) in the land of Egypt shall come into their own bosom. As the land, as the eagle against the house of the Lord;” while his explanation is as follows: “Since, though I preserved them and instructed them, and gave them victory over their enemies (for I strengthened them), they have impiously set me at naught, worshipping demons for gods, and have trusted to the land of the Egyptians, and have fancied that their help shall be sufficient for their prosperity, therefore their attempt shall return unto their own besom, and they shall find no good reward of their temerity; but they shall receive, as it were, into their bosom the deserved punishment. For he shall come, he shall come who shall lay them wastethe King of Assyria, with an innumerable multitude of warriors, and he shall come to them as the whole land and region and country, that one might think that the whole region of the Persians and Medes had wholly migrated and had come into Samaria. This is the meaning of the whole land ( ). He shall likewise come as an eagle into the house of the Lord.” (He shall come) as an eagle against the house of the Lord. These words cannot mean,
(1) as Hitzig thinks, the rapidity with which the prophet is directed to convey his tidings of alarm, as if it were, “Fly [ imperfect being supplied], thou prophet, as an eagle;” nor yet, with others, the loudness of the alarm he was to sound. The meaning abruptly though vividly expressed refers
(2) to the approaching invasion of the enemy, though there is no need to supply , or , It is the substance of the prophet’s alarm. As an eagle the enemy (as is evident flora verse 3) shall come against the house of the Lord. The enemy was, in all probability, the Assyrian, in whose symbolism the eagle bulks largely; while the griffin vulture, scenting from afar, and coming down with rapid and terrific swoop upon its prey, is an appropriate image of the sudden and impetuous character of his invasion. The house of the Lord is neither the temple at Jerusalem, for the prophecy relates to the northern kingdom; nor the temple at Samaria, which could not be called Beta Yehovah, but Bethbamoth; nor the land of Israel, which could not with any propriety be called a house; but the people of Israel, which, owing to God’s covenant relation to that people, is called his house, as in Num 12:7, “My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all mine house.” The figure seems an echo of Deu 28:49, “The Lord shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flieth;” while it has a parallel in Mat 24:28, “For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together.” Because they have transgressed my covenant, and trespassed against my Law. These words exhibit the cause of Israel’s being exposed to the sudden hostile attack which the prophet was commissioned to proclaim. The provocations of Israel consisted in violating the covenant which God had been pleased to make with them, and in proving unfaithful to that Law, obedience to which was the condition of the covenant. The explanation of the whole verse thus given is confirmed by the Hebrew commentators; thus Rashi says, “The Shechinah (or Divine Majesty)says to the prophet, ‘Let the voice of thy palate be heard and sound the trumpet and say, The enemies fly hither as the eagle flieth and come unto the house of the Lord.'” Abeu Ezra more concisely conveys the same sense: “It is the words of Jehovah to the prophet, ‘ Set the cornet to thy palate, for the enemy flieth as the eagle against the house of the Lord.'” Kimchi differs in two respects from his brethren, understanding the address to be not that of Jehovah to the prophet, but of the prophet to the people; and the house of the Lord to include the whole laud of Israel and temple at Jerusalem: “The cornet to thy palate, as he said above, ‘Sound the trumpet in Gibeah.’ Many a time the prophet speaks to the people in the singular and many a time in the plural. He says, ‘Put the trumpet to thy mouth, for behold! the enemy flies hither like the eagle over the house of Jehovah; ‘he means to say,’ Over the whole land and also over the house of Jehovah, in order to destroy it.’ And he joins the trumpet to the palate (and yet man sets the trumpet to the mouth) because the voice passes over the way of the palate after it comes out of the throat.”
Hos 8:2
Israel shall cry unto me, My God, we know thee. The more literal as well as more exact rendering is, to me wilt they cry, My God, we know thee, we Israel! Notwithstanding their provocation, their unfaithfulness to the covenant of God, and their disobedience to the Law, they appeal unitedly and severally to God in the day of their distress, and urge two pleastheir knowledge of God, or acknowledgment of him as the true God; and their high position as his people. Thus the Chaldee paraphrase has: “As often as calamity comes upon them they pray and say before me, Now we acknowledge that we have no God beside thee; deliver us, because we are thy people Israel.” As to the construction, either “Israel” is in apposition to anachnu, the subject of the verb, or there is a transposition. Thus Rashi: “We must transpose the words, and explain, ‘ To me, cries Israel, My God, we know thee; ‘” so also Kimchi and Aben Ezra. The former says, “‘ Israel ‘ which comes after, should be before, after , and many inversions of this kind occur in Scripture, as Eze 39:11 and Psa 141:10.” The word “Israel” is omitted by the LXX. and Syriac, and in many manuscripts of Kennicott and De Rossi.
Hos 8:3
Israel hath cast off the thing that is good: the enemy shall pursue him. This is the reply of Jehovah. The good which Israel rejected is not exactly God the One Good, nor Jehovah the greatest Good, nor the Law, which was good; but all the goodness which he bestows on such as keep his covenant. This Israel rejected, and in turn is rejected of God and delivered up into the hands of his pursuers.
Hos 8:4
They have set up kings, but not by me: they have made princes, and I knew it not. Here was the first instance and evidence of Israel’s rejection of Jehovah. Their conduct was not guided by Divine direction, nor in obedience to the Divine will, nor with the Divine sanction. This state of things began with Israel’s revolt from the house of David, and rebellion against the son of Solomon their legitimate sovereign, and was repeated in subsequent usurpations. Perhaps we may go further back, even to the appointment of the first king of the yet undivided kingdom, when “the Lord said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them.” Usurpations such as those of Zimri, Omri, and Shallum at least are comprehended in the appointments referred toappointments on making which the people did not inquire of the Lord, nor act under his guidance, nor seek his sanction. Some go so far as to include all the kings of Israel that succeeded Jeroboam. Thus Cyril says, “He denies the kingdom of Israel and his successors on the throne of Israel.” Aben Ezra also extends the statement to the kings of the northern kingdom from the days of Jeroboam: “They inquired not of God with respect to the making of Jeroboam king, although it is written, ‘ Thou shalt in any wise set him king over thee whom the Lord thy God shall choose.'” A seeming contradiction here exists between the statement of the prophet here and that in 1Ki 11:37, where God promises by the Prophet Ahijah, “I will take thee, and thou shalt reign according to all that thy soul desireth, and shalt be king over Israel,” and the fact of Jehu’s anointing being ordered by the Prophet Elisha, who sent one of the children of the prophets for that purpose with the words, “Thus saith the Lord, I have anointed thee king over Israel.” The plotting of Jeroboam, and the conspiracy of Jehu against Joram, and the conspiracies of other usurpers, were things which God could not approve; and so we must distinguish between the permission and approval of Jehovah; in his government he permits many things which from his nature we know he does not and cannot approve. is usually and properly rendered, “they have made princes;” but Aben Ezra and Rashi translate it as equivalent to “they have removed;” while the Massora reckon in the number of those words which are written with shin but are read and explained with samech. Some manuscripts also of Kennicett and De Rossi have . Of their silver and their gold have they made them idols, that they (literally, it) may be cut off. This is a second proof of Israel’s renunciation of Jehovah. They used their gold in making the idolatrous calves, and their silver in supporting their idolatrous worship; or they made the idol-calves, some of silver, and others of gold. The consequence rather than the purpose is the destruction of it, namely, the gold and silver; or the ruin of the kingdom or of each member of it; or the cutting off of their name, according to Kimchi. The word , like in Greek, is generally relic, denoting “purpose;” nor is it ecbatic here, denoting “result,” though, according to the Hebrew mode of thought, design and consequence often coincide. Its meaning here is well explained by Keil, describes the consequence of this conduct, which, though not designed, was nevertheless inevitable, as if it had been distinctly intended.”
Hos 8:5
Thy calf, O Samaria, hath east thee off; mine anger is kindled against them. This portion of the verse has occasioned much diversity of translation and exposition, and yet the general meaning is much the same.
(1) In the translation
(a) of the Authorized Version the word “thee” is supplied; others
(b) supply “me,” meaning Jehovah, thus, “Thy calf, O Samaria, hath cast me off;” while
(c) Rosenmller prefers supplying “them,” viz. the Israelites: “Thy calf, O Samaria, hath cast them off,” i.e. has been the cause of their rejection, which is favored by in the following clause. The meaning of (b) is plain, the import being that the idol-worship had led to the rejection and so the withdrawal of Jehovah; while the sense of (a) conveys the idea that the golden calf which the country represented by its capital and the government had established at Bethel as the symbol of their worship, so far from protecting its worshippers, would fall itself into the hands of the Assyrian invader.
(2) The Septuagint translates by , equivalent to “Cast off [as if ] thy calf, O Samaria;” which is an exhortation to Samaria, and not only Samaria, but the entire country, with the inhabitants of the capital at its head, to cast aside the calf-worship by which they had incurred the wrath of the Almighty. Jerome, reading (Pual), renders, “Cast off is thy calf.”
(3) Some modern scholars translate, “He has cast off thy calf,” and refer it to the enemy, and rather in the sense of carrying off the golden image as a spoil; or to Jehovah; thus De Wette has, “[Jehova] verwirft deiu Calb, Samarien,” which is not in keeping with the first person in the next clause.
(4) Others take the verb intransitively, and give it the meaning of “smelling bodily,” “emitting intolerable stench.” “being loathsome or disgusting;” thus Keil has, “Thy calf disgusts, O Samaria.” So Wunsche: “Anekolt deiu Calb.” Israel loathed or felt disgust at pure worship and what was really good; now Jehovah in turn is disgusted with their golden calf and hateful idolatry. No wonder it is added, Mine anger is waxed hot (has burnt or blazed out) against them; i.e. not the calf and Samaria, nor the calves, but their stupid, sinful worshippers. How long will it be ere they attain to innocence? Or it may be translated, How long will it be ere they shall be able to endure (bear) innocence (guiltlessness)? The verb , has frequently to be supplemented by another verb, as in Psa 150:5, , “A proud heart will not I suffer;” so also Isa 1:13. The speaker here turns, as it were, from unwilling auditors to others more ready to lend ancar, and asks, “How long are they incapable of purity of life instead of the abominations of idolatry? How great the madness that, while I allow space and place for repentance, they are unwilling to return to soundness of mind! ” The Authorized Version rendering is supported by Aben Ezra and Kimchi. The former explains: “It is as if were written double, ‘Thee as thy calf cast offthee Samaria, as if it has rejected thee, for the city shall be laid and its inhabitants shall go into captivity;'” and Kimchi says, ” is transitive, and has the meaning of ‘ remove,’ as in Lam 2:7. He says, ‘O Samaria, thy calf has removed thee,’ that is, on account of it thou art removed out of thy land.” The last clause is also well explained by Kimchi, though in a different sense from that given above, thus: “How long are they unable to purify themselves from this guilt (i.e. idolatry)?”
Hos 8:6
For from Israel was it also: the workman made it; therefore it is not God. The prophet here vindicates the justness of Jehovah’s complaint and the folly of Israel’s conduct. The first clause points out the orion of this idolatrythis god of gold was out of Israel, it proceeded from them and was invented by their kings. The second clause shows that it was of human manufacture; while the natural inference follows in the third clause to the effect that, having its origin with man and being made by man, it could not be God. Or if the rendering, “Thy calf disgusts,” be adopted, the ki introduces the explanation of the disgust which that abomination caused. This idol was of home manufacture, not imported from abroad, as Baal and Ashtaroth from the Sidoniaus, Chemosh from the Moabites, and Moloch from the Ammonites. The Israelites themselves and their king Jeroboam made for the northern kingdom what had been learnt in Egypt. Thus Israel’s god was a creature of Israel’s own devising. How stupid and how absurd! Israel’s god man-made, how enormous and abominable the iniquity! But the calf of Samaria shall be broken in pieces. It shall become splinters; the hapaz legomenon, is derived from an Arabic root, shaba, to cut; and thus, as the calf at Sinai was burnt and pulverized, the calf of Samaria shall be broken into splinters and destroyed. The whole verse is well explained by Kimchi: “Now ye will see if the calf is able to deliver its worshippers; it cannot even deliver itself, for it shall become splinters, as if he said that the enemies shall break it up and carry it away for the worth of the gold, not for any utility that is in it while it is still in the form of a calf. is equivalent to (broken pieces, shivers), fragments.” The Septuagintal rendering, , is probably due to the reading , Mic 2:4, “turning away.”
Hos 8:7
For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind. The harvest corresponds to the seed-time; their foolish and vain idolatries shall have corresponding results. This proverbial expression imports more than merely labor in vain; it denotes labor that has an injurious and destructive result. It has more than a negative significancy of lost labor; it conveys the idea of positive detriment. “The prophet,” says Kimchi, “means to say that they will weary themselves in vain in this service (of idols), just as if a man who sows the wind, in which there is nothing substantial, shall only reap the wind, or even still less; as if he had said, ‘ Ye shall not obtain the least enjoyment, but only injury.'” If, then, the wind denote the vanity and nothingness of human effort, the whirlwind is the image of destruction and annihilation, viz. a storm or hurricane remorselessly tearing all away with it. Suphah itself intensifies the notion included in ruach, while the paragogic intensifies still more, so as to denote a storm of greatest violence. The double feminine ending is regarded by most as strengthening the sense in this word suphathah, , etc. It hath no stalk (margin, standing corn): the bud shall yield no meal; better, shoot brings no fruit. This is a further development of the figure. When wind is the seed sown, destruction represented by tempest is the harvest reaped. The seed sown produces no stalk, or at least no stall= with grain in itno standing corn. If the seed shoot up at all, tile shoot has no fruit. Here the play on words, of which the Hebrews were so fond, is obviousthe tsemach has no yemach; the halm has no malm; the Spross no Schoss; the corn no kern. If so be it yield, the strangers shall swallow it up. When, or if, any fruit is attained, the invasion of rapacious foreigners swallows it up. First, then, when the wind of vain human efforts is the sowing, destruction is the harvest. If the seed spring up at all, the ear does not fill; or if the ear should fill, there is no substance in it; or if it fill and have substance, the rapacity of hostile invaders consumes it. Thus a blight falls on all they do. Kimchi explains the verse fully as follows: “Because the prophet compares their works to one who sows the wind, he adds further to the same image, and says, ‘It has no stalk, it reaches not the time when it shall be stalk’ (or ‘standing corn’). Now is the name of the corn when it stands ready for the harvest, from which the husbandmen (literally, ‘sowers’) soon expect enjoyment, i.e. after harvest, when they shall make it into meal. Yea, even at the time they expect profit from their works, they shall have none. And he says further, ‘The shoot shall not produce fruit or meal,’ as if he said, ‘ Even should the seed spring up after the sowing.’ He thus represents in a figure that should they prosper a little in their works after they have begun to do evil, yet that prosperity will not last, and it will not come to perfect enjoyment (beauty) like corn which comes to harvest and to grinding. And if it should yield, strangers devour it. Perhaps for a time it may produce so as to come to meal, as if he said that, should they prosper in their possessions so that a little enjoyment should be accorded to them at the first, then strangers shall come and devour it, and their enjoyment will not be complete.”
Hos 8:8
Israel is swallowed up. Not only shall the productions of their land be swallowed up, but the persons of the Israelites shall be consumed; nor is the event far off in the distant future, though the Hebrew commentators translate the past as prophetic future; already has the process beam. Such is the extension of the punishment. Now shall they be (rather, are then become) among the Gentiles as a vessel wherein is no pleasure. The prosperity, population, property, and even nationality, are swallowed upengulfed as in some abyss, so as to be undiscoverable to the present time; while their reputation has suffered so sorely that they are despised as a worthless household vessela vessel unto dishonor, never of much worth, but now cast away as entirely unfit for use.
Hos 8:9
For they are gone up to Assyria, a wild ass alone by himself: Ephraim hath hired lovers. All their misery and misfortune they have brought upon themselves. They have prepared this fate for themselves, and made themselves meet for their fate. The second clause is correctly rendered, a wild ass goes alone by itself; and this clause is an independent statementnot connected by n- of comparison either with the clause preceding nor with the succeeding one. Instead of saying that Epraim, that is, Israel, went up to Assyria like a stubborn wild ass alone by itself, or that like a wild ass going alone Ephraim hired (sued for) lovers, the statement stands independent and in a measure detached, the meaning being that even a wild ass, stupid and stubborn as that animal is, keeps by itself to secure its independence. The conduct of Israel, however, appears to disadvantage in contrast with that of a stupid wild ass; it is more stupid and senseless; their folly is seen by the comparison: it maintained its independence by going alone, Ephraim lost independence by soliciting help from heathen allies. What, then, was the object to the attainment of which this foolish conduct was directed? In other words, why did Israel go on this stupid mission to Assyria? What did they seek to gain by it? The third clause contains the answer: they sought help and succor from the Assyrians. Thus the first clause, giving a reason for their calamity, shows it was self-procured by Ephraim going up to Assyria; the second clause exposes the folly of such conduct in seeking prohibited and pernicious foreign alliances; the third clause specifies the precise object of Ephraim’s sinful and foolish mission, namely, the procuring of succor from Assyria. The above explanation,
(1) which is in substance Keil’s, and which is a contrast between the independence of the wild ass and Ephraim’s servile suing for foreign help, is, we think, simpler and more correct than
(2) the common one, which is a comparison of the willfulness, waywardness, and wantonness of the wild ass roaming solitarily by itself with Ephraim’s willful waywardness in going up to Assyria for succor, and wantonness in suing for idolatrous alliances. The expression, “going up,” alludes to going to the interior of the country, or to the capital of the monarch Assyria now owned as sovereign, or to a place of refuge. The hiring of lovers, or lover, by Ephraim stigmatizes their shameful conduct as that of a shameless harlot, who, instead of receiving, bestows presents on lovers, or as the reward of endearments.
Hos 8:10
Yea, though they have hired among the nations, now will I gather them. Instead of “have hired,” “sue” would make the sense more obvious. But who are they of whom it is here said, “I will gather them”?
(1) The nations, among whom Ephraim has been suing for endearments from paramours, shall be gathered together to effect the hurt or ruin of Ephraim; while for this explanation Eze 16:37, is cited as parallel: “Behold, therefore, I will gather all thy lovers, with whom thou hast taken pleasure, and all them that thou hast loved, with all them that thou hast hated; I will even gather them round about against thee, and will discover thy nakedness unto them, that they may see all thy nakedness.” But
(2) others maintain that the persons gathered are the Ephraimites whom the Lord will gather, that is to say,
(a) will bring them all together among the nations, leading them thither; and to this exposition Hos 9:6 is thought to furnish a parallel, at least as far as the meaning of the verb “to gather” is concerned: “Egypt shall gather them up, Memphis shall bury them.”
(b) Or the Ephraimites shall be gathered together to be led away in chains and dispersed among the nations;
(c) or shall be gathered for death and to perish by sword and famine; or
(d) to be gathered together unto Samaria and other fortified cities, in order to be taken to. gather and carried by their enemies away into captivity.
(3) Rashi understands the gathering together of Israel, but in the sense of a promise “Though they have sued for endearments among the nations, I will gather them out of the nations among which they have been dispersed, as the same verb, , is used in Isa 54:1-17. and Jer 31:10, viz. ‘I will not delay their deliverance.”‘ This exposition is not in harmony with the context, from which we expect a threat of punishment rather than a promise of reward. Both Kimchi and Aben Ezra favor exposition (1) “What benefit is it to them, asks the prophet, that they sue among the nations? For soon I will gather the nations against them to carry them into captivity.” Thus Kimchi and somewhat similarly Aben Ezra. Whether we take the verb as pointed with daghesh in the tav, and so from , to give, that is, gifts to lovers, or without daghesh, and from equivalent to , to hire or bargain, makes little difference in the general sense of the clause. And they shall sorrow a little for the burden of the king of princes. This fixes with more definiteness the meaning of the foregoing member of the verse. According to
(1) this rendering of (Qeri) Hiph. from , “a little” would require to be taken Ironically; it is better, therefore, to render it “in a little time.” The burden is not that of taxation or even deportation, but of oppression in exile. The oppressor is the monarch of Assyria, who asks boastingly. “Are not my princes altogether kings?” Another
(2) translation is, “They will begin to diminish on account of the burden of the king of princes.’ According to this the verb is future of Hiph. from , to begin, and is either an infinitive for , or rather a verbal adjective: and the sense is that they begin to be or become fewer in consequence of the Assyrian‘s oppression. But
(3) taking the verb from the same root cognate with Greek , loose, set free, Gesenius translates, “And they (the hostile nations) shall presently force them from the burden (i.e. the unpleasant dominion)of the king.” The Septuagint
(4) read instead of , and a copula between, i.e.” and princes;” and render, , equivalent to “And they shall cease a little to anoint a king and princes.” Our choice must lie between (1) and (2) in interpreting this difficult clause; there is a modification of (1) worth mentioning; it is: “They shall in a little while sorrow for the burden which they pay (i.e. the tribute which they pay) kings and princes,” viz. all of them, the two concluding words being thus in apposition to the subject of the verb. On the whole, we prefer there rendering of the clause in the Authorized Version, as both grammatical and supplying a sense consistent with the context. The prophet foretells that Israel would ere long feel painfully the sorrowful consequences of their going to Assyria and suing there for help. Oppressed by a yearly tribute to the Assyrian king, they would smart under the yoke, and long to be free.
Hos 8:11, Hos 8:12
These two verses are closely connected with the preceding verse and with each other. Hos 8:11 not only accounts for, but justifies, the threat of punishment announced in Hos 8:10 by reference to Ephraim’s sin; and Hos 8:12 shows the inexcusableness of Ephraim in thus sinning. Because Ephraim hath made many altars to sin, altars shall be unto him to sin. Instead of the one sanctuary with its altar in the place which the Lord their God would choose out of all their tribes to put his Name there and to accept the offerings of his people, they multiplied altars contrary to the express command of God; while those altars which they erected in any places that pleased them were not for the service of the true God, but for the worship of idols, the calves, Baal, and ether vanities of the heathen. Thus they multiplied their sin by every altar they reared and every idol they worshipped. Their altars, instead of proving their piety, plunged them in greater sin and deeper guilt. I have written to him the great things of my Law, but they were counted as a strange thing. For the Athenians, whose city Paul found full of idols, and which in addition to its many other altars had one to an unknown god, there was some excuse, for they were not privileged with a revelation of the Divine will in a written Law; but for Israel no such apology was possible. This verse proves plainly that, in their sinning by multiplying idols and altars, they were entirely without excuse. The kethic or textual reading has ribbo for ribboth by the omission of tar and equivalent to , that is, ten thousand, or myriads; the Qeri or Maasoretic correction, , plural of , multitudes. The idea conveyed is the numerous directions, preceptive and prohibitive, of the Pentateuch; the commandments, so full and explicit, comprehending alike the great things and the little; the details, so minute as well as manifold, that there was no possibility of mistake, provided there was any mind to be informed. Still more, these commandments, directions, and details were not only communicated verbally and orally to Israel; they were committed to writing, and thus placed permanently on record. And yet, notwithstanding all this, the great things of God’s Law were regarded by many or most of those to whom they were addressed as instructions foreign to their interest, with which they had no concern, and which consequently had no claim on their attention and deserved no place in their recollection. The variety of names for the Divine commands is very noteworthy. There are commandments equivalent to all precepts of which the motives are assigned, as of circumstance to distinguish Israel from ether people; statutes, for which no motives are assigned, as in the case of the red heifer, prohibition against wearing garments of mixed material, and ceremonial prescripts in general; testimonies, precepts intended to keep up the memory of any event of fact as the Passover to remind of the departure from Egypt; precepts, rational injunctions, left, so to say, to our intelligence, as the unity of the Deity and the fact of his being the Creator; and judgments, judicial directions relating to buying and selling, inheritances, and such like.
Hos 8:13, Hos 8:14
For the sacrifice of mine offerings, they sacrifice flesh and eat it; but the Lord accepteth them not. The mention of altars naturally suggests that of sacrifices, and, as a matter of fact, with the multiplication of those altars they multiplied their sacrifices, so that the latter kept pace with the former, and a due proportionateness maintained between them. And yet, numerous as those sacrifices were, they were not real sacrifices; they were no more and no better than slaying so many animals and feasting on their flesh; the spirit of devotion was absent, therefore God did not accept them. Now will he remember their iniquity, and visit their sins: they shall return to Egypt. The turning-point was now reached, their iniquity was full, and the time of punishment had arrived. God had delivered their fathers out of the bondage of Egypt; now he will send their posterity into a bondage similar to or even worse than that of Egypt. For Israel hath forgotten his Maker, and buildeth temples (or, palaces). Here Israel’s sin, with the consequent suffering, is traced to its source. The origin of all was their forgetfulness of God and false confidence in manthem-selves and others or both. And Judah hath multiplied fenced cities. Israel forgot his Maker, and built shrines on high places, “consecrating,” as Jerome says, “whole hills and mountains and shady trees to Baal and Ashtaroth and other idols.” Judah also, though aware that Israel had renounced the love of Jehovah and had been punished for their sins, did not return to God, but trusted in fenced cities. But I will send a fire upon his cities, and it shall devour the palaces thereof. To the word for “city” the masculine suffix is attached; while with “palaces” the feminine suffix is employed. With the proper names of peoples either gender is used:
(a) the masculine with reference to the people or population, and the feminine in relation to the country; or the reference may be to Israel and Judah, the masculine referring to their respective peoples, and feminine to their lands; though
(b) Aben Ezra refers the feminine suffix of “palaces” to , city, which is feminine.
(c) The Septuagint has , foundations, instead of palaces
HOMILETICS
Hos 8:1-3
Ministerial faithfulness.
The prophet is represented as a messenger with alarming tidings, or sentinel at his post to give warning of the enemy’s approach, or rather as a herald commissioned to declare war. Earthly kings have heralds or special messengers for this purpose, and here the King of kings charges the prophet as his herald to proclaim war. “Go, then, and let the Israelites know, not now by thy mouth, but even by thy throat, by the sound of the trumpet, that I am an enemy to them, and that I am present with a strong army to destroy them.” The presence of a herald on such occasions presupposed the preparation of the enemythat they were ready to take the field, or were actually on the march. As the prophets of old, so ministers still require to act boldly, bravely, with earnestness and faithfulness in rebuking sin, warning men of approaching peril and punishment, and calling on them loudly and fearlessly to repent and return to God.
I. PUNISHMENT IN PURSUIT OF THE GUILTY. Even a heathen poet has sung, “Seldom does punishment, though lame of foot, quit the criminal who goes before.” Sometimes the prophet is summoned to declare the people’s sin, showing them its guilt and dangerous consequences; sometimes to denounce its punishment. We have a notable example of the former in a passage a good deal like the opening verse of this chapter; thus Isaiah is commanded by God in the words, “Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.” But the Prophet Hosea is here enjoined to proclaim the punishment which the sin of Israel was surely and swiftly bringing upon them: “He shall come as an eagle against the house of the Lord.” The abruptness imparts vigor to the expression, while it indicates the sad and sudden reality. When the cup of a people’s iniquity is brimful, calamity is just at hand; when they are ripe for judgment, the enemy is ready to execute it; when the day of vengeance has arrived, no distance can secure them from it. From the far-distant land of Assyria, the Assyrian eagle, Shatmaneser, like the great Babylonian eagle, Nebuchadnezzar, of a later date, “kith great wings, long-winged, full of feathers,” came from afar, swift in his advance, sudden in his approach, sure of his prey, and savage in rending it. No boasted privileges can delay that day of disaster, nor deliver when it comes; even the house of the Lord shall not be exempt. Israel, though God’s people, his house and family, shall fall by the assault of the Assyrian. God usually speaks before he strikes, and warns before he pours down his wrath; nor does he either threaten or strike until he has been provoked by sin.
II. THE PROCURING CAUSE OF ISRAEL‘S PUNISHMENT. “Because they have transgressed my covenant, and trespassed against my Law;” such is the cause which God assigns for the threatened punishment. God thus indicates his proceedings, exhibits his justice, asserts his patience and long-suffering, declares his hatred of sin, and gives to all a solemn warning against its commission. Here again the mercy of God is made manifest, Notwithstanding God’s supreme right over men and absolute authority to dispose of them as he pleases, yet he graciously condescends to enter into a covenant with his creatures, stipulating promise of reward to obedience, and penalty in case of disobedience. Nor could Israel plead ignorance of the conditions of this covenant; for the Law, with its commandments, exhibited those conditions, explicitly declaring all the duties of the covenant. They, however, broke the commandment, and so prepared the way for breaking the covenant; they trespassed against the Law, and so transgressed the covenant. They violated the commandments of the Law that taught them their duty to their neighbor; they broke the covenant that bound them to their God. Usually men proceed from omissions to commissions, and frequent violations of the Law make way for the final and entire renunciation of the covenant.
III. PROFESSION WITHOUT PRACTICE IS MERE PRETENCE. Israel had, no doubt, more knowledge of the true God than any of the neighboring nations. God s Name was known among them; to Israel belonged “the adoption, the glory, and the covenants.” They depended much on this, and in their adversity they urged with much vehemence the plea, “My God, we know thee.” So at last many will cry, “Lord, Lord, open to us;” or, “Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy Name, and in thy Name cast out devils, and in thy Name done many wonderful works?’ But this plea shall only meet, as it merits, the indignant response, “Depart from me, ye workers of iniquity.” Here is the secret of their rejection: their profession was not supplemented by practice. They pretend to know God in the day of their distress; but as long as they basked in the sunshine of prosperity, they neither desired the knowledge of God’s ways, nor delighted in the duties required of them; nay, they despised practical piety. They had a name to live, but were dead; they had a form of godliness, but denied its power in their heart and life. Alas I how many professors of religion are in this same state. “What stead will it stand a man in to be able to say, ‘My God, I know thee,’ when he cannot say, ‘My God, I love thee,’ and ‘My God, I serve thee, and cleave to thee only’?” Israel had cast off the thing that is good; they had cast off God, the supreme Good. There is nothing truly great but God, and nothing really good but God; and in rejecting God they rejected all that is good. God is the Author of all goodness, and nearness to him is the sure way of getting good. “Whatsoever any man hath or enjoys of good, is from his relation to him, his nearness to him, his congruity with him.” Israel cast off the Law of God, though that Law was holy and just and good; they cast off his worship, though that conduced both to their temporal and eternal good; they abandoned his service, though it was good for all the relations of life; they had east over everything good and upright, just and true; and now in turn they are cast off. The contrast is observable; they had driven away from all that was good, and now the enemy drives in hot pursuit after them.
Hos 8:4-8
The causes of the Divine judgments are more particularly specified.
The first sin which brought down the Divine displeasure was their civil apostasy, as it has been called, or change of civil government.
I. NATURE OF THE FIRST SIN BY WHICH ISRAEL INCURRED DIVINE WRATH. By this we are not to understand, with some, the election of Saul, because this political offence, if we may rightly so term it, included the twelve tribes in common, whereas it is the ten tribes of the northern kingdom with which the prophet here deals; neither are we, according to others, to confine the sin with which Israel is here charged to certain usurpers who, by treachery, or conspiracy, or assassination, forced their way to the throne, for this was long after the disruption, and was the sin of a few individuals rather than of the whole people, though undoubtedly the whole people suffered by the transgression of these particular persons. It is to the separation of Israel from the Davidic dynasty and the southern kingdom in the days of Jeroboam that the prophet refers.
II. THE SAME THING DONE AND NOT DONE BY GOD. An objection is sometimes urged against the severity with which Israel is reproved for the disruption of the kingdom of David, seeing that God had predestined and promised it.
1. It is true, indeed, that God had predicted the rending of the kingdom of Solomon; it is true he had promised ten tribes to Jeroboam by Ahijah the Shilonite; it is true also that he had even predetermined the whole. How, then, can it be maid to have taken place without God’s consent? Or why should Israel be so sharply rebuked for the sin? God had determined to punish Solomon by rending ten tribes from the kingdom of his son and successor, though he himself was allowed to retain the government of the whole till the end of his days, and by handing them over to Jeroboam. The part enacted by the people was not with the Divine knowledge, that is, the Divine consent, approval They did not consult God about the matter, or the manner of it, or the time of it; they did not wait for his command to do it; they did not seek his approbation in doing it; they were no way concerned about executing the Divine purposenothing was further from their thoughts. They revolted from the house of David not in order to obey God; of this, as far as the history shows, they never thought. What they did was done from a spirit of sedition; what they aimed at was a relief from oppressive taxation. They had no regard to the Divine mind in the whole movement. They were bent on carrying out their own cherished project, and yet unwittingly, unintentionally, they were carrying out the purpose and promise of God, though without any reference to the mind and will of God.
2. The following illustration of this difficult subject is given by Calvin. “God,” he says, “designed to prove the patience of his servant Job. The robbers who took away his property, were they excusable? By no means. For what was their object, but to enrich themselves by injustice and plunder? Since, then, they purchased their advantage at the expense of another, and unjustly robbed a man who had never injured them, they were destitute of every excuse. The Lord, however, did in the mean time execute by them what he had appointed, and what he had already permitted Satan to do. He intended that his servant should be plundered; and Satan, who influenced the robbers, could not himself move a finger except by the permission of Godnay, except it was commanded him. At the same time, the Lord had nothing in common or in connection with the wicked, because his purpose was far apart from their depraved lust. So also it must be said of what is said here by the prophet.”
III. THE SECOND CAUSE OF DIVINE JUDGMENT. The second sin and cause of judgment was their religious apostasy in the worship of the calves.
1. The first sin, as so often happens, led to the second. The idolatry of the calves was intended by Jeroboam to help and uphold his usurped sovereignty. Not only had the national religion fallen into decay, but it had degenerated into superstitious will-worship. Next to the subversion of the Davidic kingdom came the perversion of the legitimate priesthood.
2. The sin of their apostasy was aggravated by their abuse of the wealth which God had given them. All they had they owed to God, and were in duty bound to employ it for his honor; instead of doing so, they dishonored him by making idols of their silver and gold. Men are sometimes found to be more lavish of their gold and silver in support of a false religion than in maintaining the pure worship of the true God. Israel might pretend that their calves of gold were only representations of Jehovah; but Jehovah refuses to be so represented, forbidding men to make any graven image of metal, or stone, or wood, standing out prominently and in high relief, or any likeness el anything on a fiat surface as a picture, for the purpose of doing it homage by worship or serving it by sacrifice. If, then, men neglect the Divine prohibitions or precepts, they must remember that God will not be mocked by their professions or pretences, but will estimate them by their practice in the light of his Law.
3. Israel was destroying himself by this sinful idolatry. “That he may be cut off;” such is the literal sense, as though it meant the whole nation as one manone and all. Such was the tendency of their conduct, though it was not their intention; such was the inevitable end of their course, though they were not aware of it. “So a man chooses destruction or hell, if he chooses those things which, according to God’s known Law and Word, end in it. Man hides from his own eyes the distant future, and fixes them on the nearer objects which he has at heart.” Some take the clause to mean that the gold and silver so sadly misused and sinfully perverted would be cut off; it appears rather to refer to the persons who were the possessors thereof; in any case their money would perish, either passing out of their possession or along with the possessors.
IV. THEIR SIN AND CONSEQUENT SUFFERING ARE INSISTED ON. The striking amplification of the same subject seems designed to impress on the people’s mind that they themselves, and no other, had wrought their ruin, and that they need not try to transfer the fault to others, or charge God foolishly. Nor is it necessary to suppose that a calf had been set up at Samaria, or that one of those at Dan and Bethel had been removed thither. Samaria was the metropolis of the northern kingdom, and as such took a leading part in the calf-worship and contributed largely and liberally to its support. Of the different renderings of the first clause of verse 5, all tending pretty much in the same direction, we may safely adhere to that of the Authorized Version as affording a good sense. Israel, we read in verse 3, “had cast off” God and goodness; now the calf which they had set up as their god had cast them off, left them in the lurch, or caused their removal to another and a foreign land; thus their sin and its punishment are linked together by the same word, “cast off” (). The thing is represented in the past because sure of accomplishment; they had renounced God, and now the thing which they substituted for God had abandoned them. So shall it ever be; whatever object men make an idol of, and set it up in their heart instead of God, giving it that place in their affections which belongs to God alone, will one day assuredly cast them off, desert them in their sorest need, and leave them in distress. Is wealth our idol? Do we make gold our god, and fine gold our confidence? That calf of gold will cast us off; for fiches make themselves wings and fly away, as has been the sorrowful experience of thousands! Is fame the god we follow? Is popular applause the idol we worship? Are worldly greatness and its accompanying glory the idols, the objects, of our idolatry, and dear to us as the calves at Dan and Bethel were to Israel? This calf of vain-glory will surely cast us off; for fame is a bubble that bursts before it goes far along the stream of time; popularity is often false, always fickle as the breeze. The words of Wolsey prove with wondrous power how the calf of worldly glory casts off its worshippers.
“Farewell, a long farewell, to all my greatness!
This is the state of man: Today he puts forth
The tender leaves of hope, tomorrow blossoms,
And bears his blushing honors thick upon him:
The third day comes a frost, a killing freest;
And,when he thinks, good easy man, full surely
His greatness is a-ripening,nips his root,
And then he falls, as I do. I have ventured,
Like little wanton boys that swim on bladders,
This ninny summers in a sea of glory;
But far beyond my depth: my high-blown pride
At length broke under me; and now has left me,
Weary, and old with service, to the mercy
Of a rude stream, that must for ever hide me.
Vain pomp and glory of this world, I hate ye!”
Do the pleasures of sin engross our affections, and are they the idol on which our heart dotes? Our idol will cast us off. The pleasures of sin are short-lived; they last but for a season, and that season is at most and best a short one; nor do they satisfy while they last. Is beauty the object of our idolatry? This calf, so greatly admired and much beloved, in a little while casts off and disappoints its many worshippers. For beauty is a fair but fleeting flower; it fades and fails. “All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away.” The heir to or actual owner of a large estate, with its broad acres and princely mansion, sets his heart on his splendid possessions; his magnificent property becomes his idol, but his calf casts him off. If only heir, he may never enter on the actual possession, and so he is disappointed of it; if already owner, he may in many ways be disappointed in it, or he may be deprived of it by force, or fraud, or casualty, or death; in either case the calf casts off the idolatrous worshipper. The hereditary estate, secure it as men will by deeds and settlements, shall change proprietorship and be taken away; there is no real fixity of tenure here on earth. The baronial residence shall in time become a ruin grey, round which the ivy twines.
2. But why does the calf of Samaria, or, generally speaking, men’s idol, prove so unsatisfactory, blighting men’s hopes and blasting their expectations, so that they are left a prey to disappointment, disgust, distress, or even despair? Just because God’s anger is kindled against it. God is a jealous God, and will not give his glory to another, or his praise to graven images. Whatever course of sin men pursue becomes like a conductor of electricity, and brings down the scathing lightning of the Divine wrath upon their guilty heads.
3. But the anger of God is not only kindled against them; it is aggravated and intensified by their obduracy of heart and persistent course of evil. “How long,” asks God, “will it be ere they attain to innocency?” that is to say, how long will they persevere in their present evil ways, neither purging themselves from the sin of idolatry and putting away their idols, nor striving to attain to purity of life and uprightness of character? The omniscient One himself in asking this question seems surprisedwith reverence be it spokenat their suicidal obstinacy, as if bent on their own destruction and rushing on their own ruin. He waits to be merciful, but they repel the overtures of his grace; he stretches out his hand to receive and welcome them, but they refuse to return. No wonder our blessed Lord, during the days of his flesh, is reported in a certain place to have “marveled because of men’s unbelief.”
4. We are further shown in the following verse the justness of God’s indignation against those stupid calf-worshippers. This worship was no institution of God.; it was Israel’s invention. They could not lay the blame of it on others. Sinners sometimes feel a miserable satisfaction or even palliation in endeavoring to make others the scapegoat of their own iniquities. This is an old story. Adam laid the fault of his eating the forbidden fruit on Eve; Eve in turn transferred it to the serpent. No doubt a load is lightened when it is laid on the shoulders of several persons instead of a single individual. Not so with Israel in this case. No prophetic intimation induced Israel to adopt the calf-idolatry, neither could they find fault with their neighbors for seducing them into it. It was their own device, and had its origin with their king and themselves. How sad that Israel should make themselves so vile!that Israel, forgetful of their high lineage; that Israel, unmindful of their great progenitor, whose title of nobility was “prince with God;” that Israel, whom God had taken into covenant to be his peculiar people, and who at the foot of Sinai avouched the Lord to be their God, should prove so unspeakably sottish as to worship a man-made God, having “changed their glory into the similitude of an ox that eateth grass”! But those calves of Dan and Bethel, or this calf of Samaria, in its collective sense comprehending all and considered by them as a “sort of tutelary deity of the ten tribes,” was as contemptible in its end as at its beginning. Made by man’s hand, it was to be unmade by the same; fashioned by man, it was doomed to be broken into fragments by man, and, like Aaron’s calf at Sinai, broken into pieces and ground to powder.
V. A MORAL SEED–TIME AND ITS HARVEST. The account of Israel’s punishment is continued in two striking similitudes, one of which presents the positive side and the other the negative. The positive side is that of a man sowing the wind and. reaping the whirlwind, as if a person took immense pains, toiling and laboring like a husbandman when he sows his seed; but the seed sown is wind, a thing of naught and unsubstantial-mere empty sound, and nothing more or better; then when harvest comes, as might in such circumstances be expected, there is grievous disappointment, and not only disappointment, but destruction, utter destruction, represented by a fearful whirlwind (the double termination intensifying the meaning). “If it may be supposed,” says Pococke, “that a man should sow the wind and. cover it with earth, or keep it there for a while penned up, what could he expect but that it should be enforced by its being shut up, and the accession of what might increase its strength to break forth again in greater quantities with greater violence?” Israel expended gold and silver on their idols, and were assiduously laborious in their worship; but instead of reaping any benefit from them, or increasing their prosperity by them so as to equal the idolatrous nations around, they labored in vain and wearied themselves for very vanity. Nor was that all; they reaped ruin, being swept away by the whirlwind of Divine wrath. The negative side exhibits three degrees of development, or three stages of progress. They sow, and, as the husbandman expects a crop, so they look for a harvest of peace, plenty, and prosperity. But lo! the seed they sow never comes up, it has neither blade nor stalk; or if it should spring up, produce a stalk or standing corn and develop an ear, it never reaches maturitythe ear does not fill, there is no ripe corn in the ear, and so the bud yields no meal; or suppose it to advance yet further, and to ripen and yield meal, it becomes a spoil to the enemy, for strangers swallow it up. How many every year, every month, every week, ay, every day, are sowing in this way foolishly and even fatally, being doomed to reap, not only disappointment, but destruction! The apostle tells us that they who sow to the flesh shall reap corruption. It is observable that in the passage referred to (Gal 6:8) there is a distinction: the seed ( ) and. the soil, or the field ( ), and that which is sown in it. The field is the flesh, or sensuality in general: in that field some sow the seed of licentiousness, and they reap rottenness; some sow intemperance, and they reap corruption.
VI. THE SAD SEQUEL OF ISRAEL‘S SIN. The figure now resolves itself into a facta threefold factnamely, Israel’s consumption, captivity, and contempt.
1. They are swallowed up as a victim is swallowed by a beast of prey, and consumed from being a nation. And yet this consumption is not annihilation, nor extinction, as we learn from the remainder of the verse. It is rather impoverishmenttheir substance devoured by strangers, and the produce of their land eaten up. The expression may be paralleled by the Homeric
“Priam and all his house and all his host
Alive devour; then, haply, thou wilt rest.”
More appropriate still is the Scripture parallel, “Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge? who eat up my people as. they eat bread.”
2. Their dispersion and captivity m Gentile lands were soon and certainly to come to pass. Driven from their own country, and deprived of those ordinances which, when they might have enjoyed and profited by them, were abused and despised, they shall ere long find themselves strangers in a foreign land and among heathen people; for “now shall they be among the Gentiles.”
3. In addition to captivity, they are doomed to contempt, like vessels put to the vilest use, and into which the filthiest things are poured. They have been vessels of dishonor, despised broken vessels, in which there is no pleasure. And has it not been so with Israel for nearly, or perhaps we might say for more than, two thousand years? Notwithstanding the eminence to which individuals of that race have risen in the different professions and in various walks of life, they have as a people, in the lands of their dispersion, been subject to outrage, treated with contumely, scorned and spoiled and peeled.
4. Though these calamities were peculiar to Israel in a special manner, yet less or more they have been common to sinners at all times and in all lands. Those that corrupt religion or contemn its privileges are not infrequently deprived of them; gospel-despisers are deprived of the gospel; those that dishonor God are dishonored by their fellow-men, for “them that honor me,” says God, “I will honor; and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed.”
Hos 8:9-13
The justice of the judgments threatened with further additions.
Their errand to Assyria added to their sin; they sought heathen helpers to uphold them in their apostasy and idolatry, increasing their sin.
I. ONE SINFUL ACT IS PROLIFIC OF MANY MORE. One sinful course draws on another, just as one lie necessitates one or more to make it plausible, or prop it up or cloak it. The revolt from the Davidic dynasty was a wrong step and a sinful one; the idolatry Of the calves was still more wicked. The progression was from bad to worse; but to have recourse to foreign allies to secure them in their twofold national iniquity was yet another step down the steep incline of sin.
II. SIN IS AT ONCE A FOOLISH AND EXPENSIVE THING.
1. Ephraim’s conduct was as perverse in this regard as the headstrong wild ass that refuses all restraint, and stubbornly pursues its own headlong course through the desert; or, if it be a contrast and not a comparison, the folly of Ephraim is reproved by the wild ass, which is sufficiently wise to roam at large in its own solitary way, keeping aloof from all interference with its liberty and retaining its independence.
2. But Epraim’s folly cost them dear. Like a shameless wanton, wooing and not waiting to be wooed, they resorted to sinful helps which were as much adultery as idolatry itself; they hired help by such adulterous alliances. The help they thus procured in reality helped them not; they submitted to the suzerainty of Assyria, and became subject to imposts and tribute. To escape one master, men sometimes put themselves in the power of a worse, repeating the experience of the poet’s fable “
A lordly stag, arm’d with superior force,
Drove from their common field a vanquish’d horse,
Who for revenge to man his strength enslaved,
Took up his rider and the bit received;
But, though he conquer’d in the martial strife,
He felt his rider’s weight, and champ’d the hit for life.”
II. GOD ALONE IS THE SURE REFUGE OF HIS PEOPLE IN THEIR STRAITS. In time of trouble men often sin against God, and sin against their own soul by going elsewhere in search of help. If in their straits they seek help of God, all will be well with them in the end. When trouble comes, when affliction comes, when we are in distress, instead of simple shifts we are to seek help from God; instead of putting confidence in creaturely succors, we must apply to the Creator. To neglect him and sue for relict elsewhere, is forsaking our own mercies and turning our back on God; to depart from God and depend on sinful means of help, is hurtful in the effort and in the effect, as well in the emergency as in the issue and end. Nor need we ever distrust his care or doubt his kindness, if only in earnest we apply to him; his help is real, his help is effectual; he bestows it without stint and without fee or reward, without money and without price. As the psalmist sings so beautifully
“God is our Refuge and our Strength,
In straits a present Aid;
Therefore, although the earth remove,
We shall not be afraid.”
IV. WRONG MEANS OF HELP PROVE RUINOUS. The help which Israel hired among the heathen, so far from availing them, put them in a worse position than before.
1. God would frustrate their purpose, gathering their hired allies against them, or themselves as exiles among aliens and enemies. If “a little ‘ be not referred to time nor understood ironically, it may mean that heavy as was the tribute imposed by the Assyrian monarch, and grievous to be borne so that it caused revolt, it was the source of little grief compared with what followed, when first a portion and then the whole of the nation were carried into Captivity.
2. Partly similar and partly dissimilar is the following exposition of Kimchi: “They at first murmured and complained on account of the burthen of the king and the princes, as is written in the Book of Kings that the kings of the nations imposed tribute on them; and this the prophet calls a trifle in comparison with the Captivity.” The taxes and burdens with which they were oppressed were, indeed, mere trifles, and easily borne in respect of the Captivity and the calamities that succeeded.
3. “A people,” says an old expositor, “who have suffered under lesser trouble, and yet have made no right use of it to prevent more, or have used sinful means to be rid of it, may expect no other issue but that the Lord will send a greater trouble to make them forget the former; for this had been their carriage under their tribute and burdens, and they are therefore told they shall sorrow a little for the burden of the king of princes.” Further, the means that men use will be of little avail so long as they refuse to acknowledge God, while the most prudent plans of their own devising, if unsanctioned and unblessed by him, end in disappointment and disaster; what they hire for their preservation becomes their undoing, and issues in destruction. Israel had applied to Assyria, and as the result of that application “began to be minished through the burden of the king of princes” (according to one rendering of the clause). First came the exactions of Pul, then the captivity of Gilead by Tiglath-pileser, and in the end the deportation of all Israel by Shatmaneser.
V. A SHOW OF RELIGION WITHOUT THE SUBSTANCE SERVES ONLY TO INCREASE BIN. God had, from the time of Moses, appointed one altar at Jerusalem; and when, in the days of Joshua, the trans-Jordanic tribes were thought by their brethren to have built an altar in violation of the Divine appointment, it called forth a most vigorous remonstrance: “What trespass is this that ye have committed against the God of Israel, to turn away this day from following the Lord, in that ye have builded you an altar, that ye might rebel this day against the Lord?” It was only on receiving an explanation that it was not a sacrificial but monumental altar that the western brethren were reconciled.
1. Now, however, they had so far degenerated that beside the once central altar at Jerusalem they had one at Dan, another at Bethel, and others on every high hill and any other place that pleased them. This multiplication of altars had the appearance of religion, but only the appearance; these many altars were in all likelihood made for the ostensible purpose of offering expiatory sacrifices for sin, but were actually an augmentation of the people’s sin, each altar becoming an additional element in the national transgression.
2. They had turned aside from God for human help; next they turned aside from the divinely appointed mode of worship to bureau methods, substituting for the pure service of the Most High the miserable semblance of self-devised religiousness. They had made many altars, which, however intended, resulted in the commission of sin; and now these many altars, instead of expiating their sins or making amends for their transgressing God’s express command, are counted to them for sin and bring them in guilty before God, not to speak of the fact that the multiplication of altars to the true God would occasion the further sin of dedicating altars to other and strange gods. If men corrupt religion, however plausible their pretext, they do it at unspeakable peril to their own soul and the souls of others,
VI. THERE IS NO REASONABLE EXCUSE FOR SIN. This was specially the case with Israel, and still more particularly with ourselves. If Israel had been left in heathen darkness, if they had been ignorant of the Divine statutes and judgments, if they had not enjoyed the high privilege of being made the custodians of God’s living oracles, there might have been some excuse for them, though indeed natural reason is sufficient to leave even the heathen without any reasonable excuse for idolatry.
1. But how different it was with Israel! God had made known to them, and that in permanent written record, the many lessons of his Law; but much as God had done for the people of Jewry, still more has he done for the peoples of Christendom, for while the Law came by Moses, grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. We have in our hands, and for daily perusal, the wondrous things of the Law and the gracious things of the gospel; the twin lips of God’s great oracle speak to us.
2. Many and great are the lessons of the written Word. Many as they are in number, they are yet greater in importancegreat in their origin, for they come from God and are given by inspiration of his Spirit; great in their utility to man, for they make him acquainted with the things that pertain to life and godliness; great in their issues, for the interests of eternity are intertwined with them and depend on them; great as revealing the one living and true God, the way of his worship, his well-beloved Son our only Savior, and the plan of salvation by him.
3. Proportionately great is the sin of neglecting them. Israel, though God had been at pains to write to them the great things of his Law, turned their back upon them as something strange in which they had no concern, and with which they were disinclined to intermeddle, and which, even if attended to, could prove of little moment. These things, in greater measure and with greater fullness, have been handed on to us; for, though written long ago, they were written for our learning. What a terrible responsibility rests on us if we neglect these things from indifference, or slight them from contempt, or refuse to be directed, guided, and governed by them, or reject them altogether as unworthy of our observance and obedience, or as unsuitable to a progressive age and present circumstances!
VII. SELFISH SERVICES ARE VOID OF SIGNIFICANCE. “Most part of worshippers follow the external duties of religion no further than their own ends lead them; and men’s own advantage is the upholder of all false religion, for they sacrifice and eat it.”
1. They feasted on their sacrifices. This was allowable in the case of peace offerings and thank offerings; but in the case of the burnt offerings they were wholly consecrated to God, and ascended (according to the import of the name) in the altar-smoke to heaven. Israel was not, it is probable, careful to mark the distinction or restrict their appetite in the case. It is right and proper that we should carry our religion into our business, but decidedly wrong to carry our business, with all its selfishness or greed of gain, into our religion.
2. Their worship was a lifeless, soul-less, unspiritual service. Besides being offered in the wrong place and by the wrong personsthat is, in places forbidden and by unauthorized persons, such as Jeroboam’s prieststhey were offered without the right aim or right end, or any true devotion of spirit. It was mere external worship, without spiritual affections, or spiritual dispositions, or spiritual life; and therefore such sacrifices wanted the proper qualities and necessary characteristics of sacrifice; they were, in fact, only flesh, and the victims only carcasses, and consequently the Lord could not away with them; he accepted them not.
3. A proper spirit, a pure heart, and clean hands are among the conditions of acceptable service. God, by the Prophet Isaiah, after affirming his respect to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembling at the Divine Word, adds in relation to the opposite character, “He that killeth an ox is as if he slew a man; he that sacrificeth a lamb, as if he cut off a dog’s neck; he that offereth an oblation, as if he offered swine’s blood; he that burneth incense, as if he blessed an idol.” So in the New Testament we are required to present “reasonable service,” or service in which the soul and spirit are engaged, as opposed to what is merely outward and corporeal. 4. Unhallowed services only remind God of the offences of the worshippers, whose sins in consequence he remembers, not to pardon them, but to punish them. The God that redeemed them and brought them out of Egypt will send them back into bondage, in Assyria or elsewhere, equal to or worse than that of Egypt. Some literally and actually went to Egypt, and found a grave there.
Hos 8:14
Israel and Judah both in the transgression.
In this closing verse of the chapter God takes Judah to task as well as Israel for forgetfulness of God; while that forgetfulness of his Maker on the part of Israel manifested itself in idolatry, and so in building idol-temples, but on the part of Judah by carnal confidences, and so in multiplying fenced cities. The one set up idols m the place of God, the other confided in outward means of defense and safety instead of trusting in God; thus the heart of both was far from God and the remembrance of his Name. The sin here recorded occurred in the reign of Ahaz, who sought to secure Judah by fortified cities, dreading the incursions of Assyria (Isa 22:8-11). The punishment was inflicted by Sennacherib (Isa 36:1).
HOMILIES BY C. JERDAN
Hos 8:1-4
A trumpet-blast of judgment.
In this passage the announcement of Israel’s doom is still more direct than it has hitherto been. Up to this point the prophet’s message has been principally one of complaint, with threatening of punishment in the future; now, however, he speaks of the judgment as immediately about to fall upon the sinful nation.
I. THE PROCLAMATION OF JUDGMENT. (Hos 8:1) Hosea is here abruptly addressed by the Spirit as a sentinel or watchman. Being the herald of Jehovah, he is to proclaim with the trumpet of prophecy the near approach of the day of vengeance. His immediate message is that Shalmaneser, the Assyrian king, is soon to descend upon Israel as with the fell swoop of an eagle, and to carry the ten tribes captive. Beyond that, however, and little more than a hundred years later, Nebuchadnezzar, “a great eagle with great wings” (Eze 17:3), is to fall similarly upon Judah. And yet again, in the year 70 A.D; when Jerusalem shall have become a “carcass,” the Roman eagles under Titus shall assemble around it, perch victoriously upon the crest of Moriah, and take away from the Jews “both their place and nation.” By means of such judgments as these was the wonderful prediction of Moses to be fulfilled, in which the Lord threatened to “bring a nation against Israel from far, as swift as the eagle flieth” (Deu 28:49). Even yet, however, in these times of the gospel, must the Lord’s prophet “set the trumpet to his mouth” to warn wicked nations of the doom which national sin entails, and to remind the sinner of” the wrath to come” which shall overwhelm the impenitent. The “silver trumpet” of the gospel jubilee is to announce, not only the salvation which the Lord Jesus Christ brought at his first coming, but also the judgments which are to overtake unbelievers at the second advent, and which shall then be heralded by the dread “trumpet” of the resurrection.
II. THE CAUSE OF THE JUDGMENT. It was apostasy. This is stated generally in verse 1, and more specifically in verse 4. Israel had “transgressed the covenant” (verse 1) that Jehovah had made with them at Sinai; they had done so by “trespassing against his Law,” as written in “the book of the covenant” (Exs 24:7). They had forsaken God in two ways: by rebelling against the royal house of David, and by rejecting the priestly order of Aaron (verse 4).
1. Israel maintained a schismatic kingdom. In revolting under Jeroboam, they consulted only their own evil self-will, and not the will of Jehovah. During the two hundred and fifty years that the northern kingdom lasted, the throne was occupied by six or more wretched dynasties, and by nineteen unhappy monarchs, all of whom were apostates from God and tyrants over the people. Not one of the kings of the ten tribes did Jehovah recognize as his vicegerent. Dethronements and assassinations and usurpations followed one another, and he “knew it not.”
2. Israel embraced a false religion. “They made them idols,” and went astray into calf-worship and Baal-worship. Not only did the political apostasy lead to the adoption of these heathen practices; the tribes, apart from that, had at this period of their history strong leanings towards idolatry. The people found it pleasant to employ as objects of worship what they could see and touch. They desired to be like the nations around them that served graven images. So they gave freely of their wealth (verse 4) for the maintenance of their idol temples. In our age, too, the Lord’s prophet must point to apostasy from him as the cause of spiritual ruin. The gospel trumpet is to emphasize the counsel of the apostle, “Little children, keep yourselves from idols” (1Jn 5:21). The pulpit ought to warn men that the one sure result of persistently setting any creaturewhether money, or power, or fame, or any earthly lovein the place of the Creator, will be the irreparable loss and everlasting shame of the soul
III. THE FALSE PLEA WHICH ISRAEL WOULD USE TO DEPRECATE THE JUDGMENT. (Verses 2, 3) Their affliction would drive the people to pray, and to plead that “we, Israel, have known thee.” But such a declaration on their part were pretentious and hypocritical. It was irrelevant, and it would be unavailing. For, after all, it rested only upon their natural descent as the chosen race, and upon the historical information about God which they possessed. The plea is that the Lord must protect his own people; but he does not recognize as such those who can say nothing more than that “they have Abraham for their father.” He regards mere head-knowledge of himself as dead knowledge. Israel “professed that they knew God, but in works they denied him” (Tit 1:16). “Israel hath cast off good” (verse 3)thrown it from him with loathing and contempt. He had rejected God’s salvation, by “transgressing his covenant”in token whereof he had separated himself from the dynasty of David and from the priestly house of Aaron. And he had rejected Jehovah himself as the chief Good, by seeking a portion for himself in idolatry. Inevitably, therefore, “the enemy shall pursue him;” the Assyrian must crush the northern kingdom under his iron heel, and utterly destroy it. But these verses sound still in our ears the warning, to beware lest we trust in spiritual privilege, as if that were personal piety; or in the faith of our godly ancestors, as if that could be imputed to us; or in our knowledge of theology merely, as if that were synonymous with heart-religion. There is a strong tendency in human nature towards such vain confidence; and Satan plies us with subtle temptations in this direction. The Lord Jesus has warned us that when the last “trumpet” shall sound, anti the great assize shall be held, this same false plea shall be presented by multitudes (Mat 7:22; Luk 13:25-27). To many who shall then cry, “My God, we know thee,” the reply of the Judge will be, “I never knew you; depart from me, ye that work iniquity.’ We must during the present life calmly accept Christ, and live by the faith of him; we must have his Spirit reigning in our hearts, and devote ourselves to the pursuit of righteousness, if we would “not be ashamed before him at his coming.”C.J.
Hos 8:5-14
Sin its own punishment.
These verses exhibit
(1) the root of viz. forgetfulness of God (Hos 8:14);
(2) its folly (Hos 8:6);
(3) its fruitlessness (Hos 8:7); and
(4) the ruin which it entails (Hos 8:8, Hos 8:10, Hos 8:13, Hos 8:14).
But perhaps the most prominent thought in the passage is that of the self-punishing nature of sin, as illustrated in the early history and the later fortunes of Ephraim. We see this fact reflected
I. IN THE NATIONAL CALF–WORSHIP. (Hos 8:5-7) Samaria had “cast off good” (Hos 8:3) by departing from the pure ritual which Jehovah had prescribed; and therefore the “calf” which she had set up, and in which she gloried, had “cast her off.” There was no help in the golden god during the crisis of the country’s peril. How could there be?for “the workman made it.” Instead, therefore, of interposing to save their worshippers from exile, the two calves were themselves taken to Nineveh as a spoil. Tiglath-pileser carded away the calf of Dan, and Shalmaneser that of Bethel. The worship of Jeroboam’s images proved the ruin of the nation. It was a sowing of the wind. For the breach of the second commandment paved the way for the violation of the first, and for contempt of the whole Decalogue; and then Israel “reaped the whirlwind.”
II. IN THE MULTIPLICATION OF ALTARS AND SACRIFICES (Hos 8:11-14) The Divine will had appointed but one central sanctuary and place of sacrifice (Deu 12:5-14). But Israel evinced the corruption of her worship by multiplying temples all over the land, not only to Jehovah, but to the gods of heathendom. The people protested, indeed, that they did not deny the Lord God of their fathers, even when they called upon Baal (Hos 2:11). But Jehovah could not accept a divided homage; he regarded their altars as set up only “to sin,” and he rejected the sacrifices which they laid upon them. The temples which the men of Ephraim built, thus became a millstone round their neck to drag them to destruction (Hos 8:11). What a pathetic word-picture of a dead ritualism is sketched with one slight touch in Hos 8:14, “Israel hath forgotten his Maker, and buildeth temples“! Yet these shrines were not true temples after all, for there was no Divine presence in them. Without the presence of God the most splendid cathedral is not a sanctuary, but a sepulcher.
III. IN THE POLITICAL FLIRTATIONS WITH ASSYRIA. (Hos 8:8-10) Again and again the kingdom of Israel endeavored to bolster itself up by abject vassalage to the King of Assyria, and by paying heavy tribute to buy off his invading armies. To this adulterous policy Hosea refers in the words, “Ephraim hath hired lovers.” But such expedients, so far from contributing to the safety of the nation, served rather to precipitate and aggravate its ruin. First of all, the tribute imposed upon the people caused them to “sorrow” (verse 10); and at length Israel was entirely “swallowed up” by the invader. The nation became, in its headstrong obstinacy of disobedience, like the solitary “wild ass” of the desert; and it fell an easy prey to the Assyrian lion.
IV. IN THE CONFIDENCE OF THE PEOPLE IN MATERIAL DEFENSES.. A fortified city is certainly a place of refuge from the invading host. But the motto of such should be, “Nisi Dominus frustra;” for, “except the Lord keep the city,” it will be quite defenseless, in spite of its fortifications. Judah’s battlements were not the Lord’s; so they attracted the thunderbolts of the Divine vengeance, and were at last burned with fire by Sennacherib (2Ki 18:13), and by Nebuchadnezzar (2Ki 25:9, 2Ki 25:10). His cities and towers had been erected, Babel-like, in proud self-confidence; and thus they ultimately became his destruction.
CONCLUSION.
1. What was true of Ephraim will be true also of England, so soon as the national life of our land shall resemble his. If we claim that the spiritual promises made to Ephraim apply to England, we ought also to acknowledge that the denunciations directed against Ephraim may possibly be deserved by England too.
2. If Ephraim’s sin turned out to be its own punishment, it is the same also with that of each individual sinner. Retribution fails upon the wrong-doer in the course of natural law. For Providence is just, and “of our pleasant vices makes instruments to plague us.”C.J.
Hos 8:7
Reaping the whirlwind.
The figure here is extremely striking; it is one of the most forcible and vivid of Hosea’s images. It suggests the folly and unprofitableness of a life of sin; those who live such a life “sow the wind.” And it emphasizes the fact that while the harvest must be the same in kind as the seed sown, the increase will be tremendous, both in strength and volume. The whirlwind of the desert tears along with a roar like a cataract, and carries in its wings violent and sweeping destruction; it is, therefore, a fit metaphor for the issue of a career of sin Let us inquire who are some of those that thus reap.
I. IDOLATERS. It is of such that the prophet is more immediately speaking. The people of the ten tribes were “sowing the wind” when they prayed to the golden calves for abundant harvests; and they would presently “reap the whirlwind” in the three years’ siege of Samaria by Shalmaneser, in the successive deportations into exile, and in the final ruin of the nationality of Ephraim. The generation that came out of Egypt seven centuries before had reaped a sad harvest from the calf-worship at Horeb. “There fell of the people that day about three thousand men” (Exo 32:28). And ever since that time the idolatries of Israel had been a standing grief to Jehovah their Redeemer (Psa 81:8-16); until at length there was nothing for it but the two hurricanes of captivity, which respectively swept the ten tribes into Assyria, and the remaining two into Babylon. All heathendom, moreover, “reaps the whirlwind’ still as the fruit of its idolatriesa harvest (as Paul tells us in Rom 1:18-32) of moral corruption and vileness, overhung by the storm-cloud of the Divine wrath.
II. DESPOTS. The tyrant makes an idol of his own evil will, and “sows the wind” of ambition, and pride, and vain-glory, and disregard of the rights of others. Universal history teems with illustrations of the fact that those kings and grandees of the earth who will not give God the glory are doomed to reap a harvest of whirlwind. Take, e.g; from sacred history such cases as Pharaoh, Ahab and Jezebel, Sennacherib, Haman, Herod. Or, from profane history, such illustrations as the Stuart kings of England, the Bourbon kings of France, and the fate of the two Napoleons, Some tyrants have foreseen the harvest before it began to be gathered in; like Louis XV; when he said to his courtiers, “After me, the deluge.”
III. CARELESS PARENTS. All who neglect the godly upbringing of their children “sow the wind.” There are well-meaning heads of households who fail to maintain a firm and resolute as well as kindly family government. They allow their young people to cherish self-will, or to follow pleasure as if it were the business of life, and neglect to exercise due restraint over them. This was the sin of Eli (1Sa 3:13); and he soaped the tornado in the disgrace which was thus brought upon the priesthood, together with the destruction of his own house. There are parents, also, who in their own personal character fail to set a consistent godly example before their sons and daughters. David’s great sin entailed evil upon his family like a whirlwind; some of his sons became arrows in his heart, instead of “arrows in his hand.” The historian shows us the poor king reaping his dismal harvest in the pathetic scene in which he bewailed the fate of Absalom (2Sa 18:33),
IV. Vicious MEN. The young man who “wastes his substance with riotous living” has his career described in our text. In following the impulse of his wild hot passions he “sows the wind.” The sensualist, the drunkard, the gambler,how profitless all their sowing “to their own flesh”! And what a harvest of torment and terror and shame they are compelled to reap! It has been so even with men of the most brilliant genius, as e.g. the poets Byron and Burns. A career of sinful pleasure produces the whirlwind as its natural harvest. It undermines the foundations of morality within the soul (Hos 4:11). The appropriate epitaph for such a life is, on the one side of the tombstone, “Vanity of vanities;” and on the other, “Vexation of spirit.”
V. ALL UNBELIEVERS. For even the man of good moral character “sows the wind,” if he neglects the salvation of Jesus Christ. Every one who lives without God is without hope. He who believes that the only real life is a life of sense, and who therefore shuts his eyes to the world of the unseen, shall one day be fully undeceived. Should no whirlwind arise within his conscience during the present life, he shall find himself, when he passes into eternity, at once involved in tremendous wreaths of storm. He “shall eat of the fruit of his own way,” and his “destruction shall come as a whirlwind” (Pro 1:24-33). What a dreadful tempest is “the wrath of the Lamb” (Rev 6:12-17). Yet the ungodly shall be exposed to all its fury. They shall “reap the whirlwind;” or, rather, the whirlwind shall reap them; they are “like the chaff which the wind driveth away” (Psa 1:4).
LESSONS.
1. This life is the seed-time of eternity, and all are sowers.
2. The harvest depends upon the seed; hence the importance of sowing good seed.
3. To sow sin is a policy of wretched infatuation; it is like “sowing wind.”
4. The harvest of sin is not only profitless, but terrific and destructive; it is “the whirlwind.”
5. All men have “sown the wind,” for all are sinners; but there is “a Man” who is able to shelter us from the whirlwind (Isa 32:2).C.J.
Hos 8:12
Holy Scripture, and man’s neglect of it.
The complaint contained in this verse may reasonably be addressed to multitudes still. With even more reason, indeed, than to Ephraim seven centuries before Christ; for our completed Bible contains a much richer revelation of Divine truth than those earlier Scriptures which are here referred to.
I. GOD‘S GREAT GIFT OF HOLY SCRIPTURE. “I have written to him the great things of my Law.”
1. What is God‘s “Law.”? The word is used in various senses. Sometimes it denotes the ten commandments alone; sometimes the five hooks of Moses as distinguished from the prophets; sometimes the Mosaic economy, in distinction from the gospel; and sometimes the whole will of God as published in Holy Writ to determine man’s faith and to control his conduct. Hosea in this verse, without doubt, refers immediately to the Pentateuch; but, in applying the passage to ourselves, we must extend the application of the term “Law” so that it shall cover the whole Bible.
2. What are “the great things“ of God‘s Law? These can be nothing else than those matters which constitute the substance of revelation. The Bible discloses truths which are:
(1) Great in themselves. The Book is a revelation of Godhis nature, his trinity in unity, his ways in providence, his love to sinners. It unveils to man his own origin and destiny; shows him the greatness of his nature, despite its ruins; supplies him with the perfect standard of moral purity; and satisfies his loftiest aspirations. The Book grapples with the problem of sin, and reveals the way of salvation, through the mediation of the Son of God, his incarnation, his obedience unto death, his resurrection and exaltation (1Ti 3:16), and the ministry of the Holy Spirit. It anticipates “the last things “the universal triumph of the gospel, the find resurrection, the general judgment, and the blessedness of the heavenly kingdom.
(2) Great in their importance to man For the Bible tells man what he most needs to know, in order to his highest well-being. It answers to all the wants of his many-sided naturehis desire of knowledge, his admiration of what is noble, his yearning after sympathy, his need of inward rest, his hunger for immortality. Holy Scripture is a lamp unto his feet. It is the storehouse of his spiritual food. It is the fountain of life (see Psa 19:7-11).
(3) Great in their comprehensiveness. Some read the clause thus: “I wrote to him the myriads [or, ‘the fulnesses’] of my Law;” the reference being to the almost numberless individual ordinances connected with the Mosaic institutions. This thought may well remind us of the inexhaustible supplies of knowledge of all kindsfacts, doctrines, ethical principles, precepts, promises, predictions, etc.which are stored up in Holy Scripture. The Book evinces its greatness in this respect, that it affords us sure rules and directions for out’ life under all circumstances.
3. In what sense has God “written“ these great things? In the same sense, surely, in which a man reveals his thoughts through the medium of his writings. The Lord himself is the Author of the Bible. Its teachings rest upon his authority. Whatever is declared by inspired men to be part of Divine truth or of human duty, God declares to be such. Christians may and do differ regarding theories of inspiration, but every believer accepts the fact that the books of Scripture are the Word of God.
II. MAN‘S SHAMEFUL NEGLECT OF THIS GIFT. “But they were counted as a strange thing.” The people of the ten tribes treated the precepts of the Pentateuch as if they were a matter which did not concern them. Holy Scripture is treated similarly still:
1. By worldly men. Some refuse to receive it as a Divine revelation. They reject the supernatural, ignore the whole realm of faith, and particularly dislike the distinctive doctrines of Christianity. Many more, however, have an orthodox intellectual) belief in the Bible as the Word of God; but their faith, such as it is, does not affect the conscience or the heart. When they read from the inspired volume, its words do not “come home to their business and bosoms.” “They do not realize the grand evil which the Bible has come to cure, and they have not a heart to the blessings which it offers to bestow. The film of a fallen nature, self-maintained, is upon their eyes while they read” (Dr. John Ker). So, they neglect “the great things of God’s Law” for the little matters of sense and worldly vanity. Many see no further grandeur in the Bible than its literary beauty. Others prize it simply as a book of moral culture, and nothing more. The baser sort profane Divine revelation by jesting with its holy subjects, and using its most sacred words as idle oaths.
2. By many professing Christians. Are there not such, to whom the Bible is “a strange thing,” because the), very seldom sit down to read it? And of those who do regularly read “their chapter,” how many do so merely to pacify conscience, and thus make little or no effort to understand the meaning of the passages read! Some sincere believers confine their attention to a few pet chapters which contain what they call “the simple gospel,” and ignore the rest, although the Scriptures are full of “the manifold wisdom of God.” This very prophecy of Hosea, as one has said, is “too often a deserted well;” but those, however, who come and draw from it find it full of living water. One of the wants of the age among professing Christians is a more adequate acquaintance with the contents of the Bible. The man who would enjoy robustness of spiritual life must study the Scriptures book by book, that he may discern the drift and scope of each book, apprehend its particular place in the scheme of truth, and at the same time appropriate and assimilate its teaching for the nourishment of his soul.
III. HOW WE OUGHT TO USE HOLY SCRIPTURE. (See Westminster Shorter Catechism, Question 90) If we would avoid incurring the censure of this text, we must:
1. Receive the Book with a believing and thankful heart; treat it with deep reverence as the Divine Word; and make what effort we can to circulate it throughout the world.
2. “Search the Scriptures“ with regularity and system, that our intellectual acquaint and with them may be both accurate and comprehensive.
3. Meditate upon Bible teaching with self-application in our leisure hours, that our minds may be imbued with its principles of truth and duty, and that conscience and affections and will may become subject to their power.
4. “Keep” God‘s Word in our dally acts, and in the habits which we form, so that it may mould our character, and make us Christ-like. “My mother and my brethren are these which hear the Word of God, and do it” (Luk 8:21).
5. And in all our use of Scripture we must pray for the promised aid of the Holy Spirit, without which our best efforts will be in vain.C.J.
HOMILIES BY A. ROWLAND
Hos 8:2
On knowing God.
Ignorance of God or forgetfulness of him leads to moral depravity. This may be illustrated both by national history and by individual experience. Israel was an example of this truth. The people had forsaken God, had turned to idols, and were therefore sunk in the licentiousness of pagan worship. Their only hope of moral restoration and of future blessedness lay in the fulfillment of the promise, “Israel shall cry unto me, My God, we know thee.” The converse of our first statement is equally true. The habitual consciousness that God is near cannot but give simplicity, dignity, reverence, and holiness to life. This was the source of Abraham’s magnanimity, of Joseph’s purity, of Moses’ dignity, of Daniel’s heroism. “They endured as seeing him who is invisible.” Our hope is to be found in the same source: “This is life eternal, that they might know thee,” etc.
I. THE MEANS OF KNOWING GOD. They can be seen in the experience of Jacob, who first won for himself the name “Israel.”
1. Repentance is the first step in such knowledge. No one can see goodness while gazing on sin, or know God while absorbed in self. A moral change, not a mental, is required of us as of Israel. The teaching of Christ was not too abstruse for comprehension, but it was too Divine for those absorbed in earthliness. His foes “loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.” Paul was surrounded by men of culture, yet declared “the natural man receiveth not the things of God neither can he know them, for they are spiritually discerned.” John knew the advantages of intelligent study, but he said, “He that loveth not knoweth not God.” The change from sin to holiness involves, in the spiritual realm, the change from ignorance to knowledge. Exhibit this in the vision Jacob had at Mahanaim. He knew God’s Name after he had repented of his old sin against Esau, and of the habitual subtlety it revealed. Then as Israel he could say, “My God, I know thee.”
2. Prayer is the outcry of repentance. “Israel shall cry to me.” We know a man by fellowship with him, and thus we may know God; and he who speaks to God oftenest knows him best. How infinite the condescension that permits this, the love that encourages it! None can make God known to others unless they know him themselves. Hence the special need of prayer on the part of all who speak of him. The Divine teachers of the race have been those who have come from the presence of the Eternal. Illustrations found in the great lawgiver, who had spoken to God in Midian and on Sinai; in David, whose psalms show the agony of his prayer, the intensity of his worship; in the prophets, who saw visions of God; in the apostles, who were prepared for service by being with Jesus, and not by rabbinical culture; in reformers and others, whose spiritual power has been proportionate to their intimacy with God. If all professing Christians could say, “My God, we know thee,” a human priesthood would be abolished, and the skepticism of the world would be paralyzed. It is true of this knowledge, as of all the higher blessings, “He that asketh receiveth.”
II. THE JOYS OF KNOWING GOD.
1. The sense of personal relationship to him. “My God.” He who can say, “My God,” implies such blessings as these:
(1) Thou art the Pardoner of my sin; e.g. David in Psa 51:1-19.
(2) The Bearer of my burdens: Esther and Nehemiah.
(3) The Source of my strength: Paul, “I can do all things,” etc.
(4) The Place of my safety: Noah and Elijah.
(5) The Spring of my hope: John in Patmos.
(6) The Crowner of my life: Paul, “Henceforth there is laid up,” etc.
2. The sense of saintly association. “Israel shall cry.” In this cry the people of Hosea’s time were associated with their forefathers. The God of their fathers was their God. He is the same yesterday, and today, and for ever. Hence the helpfulness of the Scripture histories, which tell us what God has been to others. Dwell on the advantages of the history and the memories of the past. Show how the saints were accustomed to strengthen themselves for their present need by recalling former help. David recalled his experience as a shepherd; the exiles their former glory; the Jews their early deliverances, etc. Christian fellowship enlarges the possibilities of this. The experience of one is enriched by the memories of others. The joy of heaven will consist partly in the remembrances the redeemed have of the loving-kindness of God. Associations with the saintly are the noblest and most abiding.
III. THE RESPONSIBILITIES OF KNOWING GOD. They who know him are called upon:
1. To wait on him in lowly prayer. If he be God, he demands our constant homage.
2. To serve him with loyal heart, with no reserve of thought, or wish, or love.
3. To learn of him by constant thought. To one who knows him he says, “I will guide thee with mine eye.” His glance, his whisper, is enough for us.
4. To represent him by consecrated life. When Moses came from the presence of God his face shone with heavenly light. When the Sanhedrim saw the courage and wisdom of Peter and John, they saw that they had been with Jesus. So he who is habitually with God will have about him something of heaven’s atmosphere and of Christ’s Spirit.
CONCLUSION. “No man knoweth the Father but the Son, and he to whom the Son shall reveal him.”A.R.
Hos 8:3, Hos 8:5 (parts)
Sin’s mockery of the sinner
“Israel hath cast off the thing that is good . Thy calf, O Samaria, hath cast thee off.” The power of the human will to choose good or evil. This evidenced by the representation Hoses gives of a people resolved on iniquity, whom God was longing to save. Refer to the teaching of our Lord upon this subject; e.g. “Ye will not come to me that ye might have life;” or, “How often would I have gathered thy children together as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, but ye would not!” Appeal to experience for proof of our power to receive or reject good. Our text describes a fallacious, sinful, and fatal choice. The sin for which sacrifice was made ultimately sacrificed the sinner. Look at the two sides of this moral picture.
I. THE CASTING OFF OF THE GOOD. “Israel hath cast off the thing that is good.” Illustrate this by a delineation of the depraved condition of Israel at this period. Show that what they cast off is still being cast off by multitudes in modern life; e.g.:
1. Faith in the nearness of God. It was the loss of this which led Israel to form fatal alliances with the heathen. In our day materialism and Positivism are enervating, and sometimes destroying faith. The symbol of the spiritual is becoming the substitute for it, This may be traced both in the teachings of a school of philosophy, and in the sensuousness of ritualistic worship. Many have cast off the old faith”the thing that is good”instead of believing where they cannot prove.
2. Fidelity in witnessing for God. It had been the glory of Israel to proclaim, both by its worship and in its history, the unity, the invisibility, and the holiness of God. By turning to the worship of visible idols, diverse in their attributes, yet all hideous in their impurity, they had deliberately repudiated this Divine commission. Still it is man’s peculiar dignity to appear as the witness and the worshipper of God, in whose image he was created, and over whose works he rules. Pre-eminently he may be the Divine witness by the moral character and the spiritual life inwrought in him by the Divine Spirit, who conforms us to the image of God’s Son. Falling short of this, man fails (as Israel failed) to fulfill his destiny. Hence, in proportion as a man refuses the grace of God, he casts off the thing that is good.
3. Obedience to the Law of God. Show from pagan history, and from the condition of modern heathen, as well as from the growing degradation of those to whom Hoses spoke, that idolatry brings with it moral deterioration. The man who ignores the first table of the Law will of necessity ignore the second also. Religious faith and moral rightness stand or fall together. When Israel turned from Jehovah to Baal and Astarte, the nation gradually but surely became false, self-seeking, ambitious in its political alliances, and hideously corrupt in its inward social condition. Israel had cast off the thing that was good.
4. Loyalty to sacred resolves. The people often appeared about to repent, but their goodness was transient as the morning cloud. How frequently now right impressions and even holy vows are cast off! How jealously all should guard themselves against the subtle influence of a busy life, or of an alluring pleasure, or of an ill-chosen companionship! There are many whose hearts are hard, and whose lives are godless, respecting whom, in memory of their early promise, it may be truly and sadly said, “They have cast off the thing that is good.”
II. THE CASTING OFF OF THE SINNER. “Thy calf, O Samaria, hath cast thee off’.” History shows that Israel was ruined by trusting to Egypt and to its own martial prowess, instead of confiding In God and simply doing righteousness. Jeremiah’s words were fulfilled, “Cursed is the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord.” Casting off good, Israel was cast off by evil. See how often this principle is exemplified in the broader sphere of human life. That which men put in the place of God sooner or later fails them.
1. Pleasures fail to give satisfaction. When the soul tries to quench its thirst with these the words of Isaiah are fulfilled, “It shall even be as when a hungry man dreameth, and, behold, he eateth; but he awaketh, and his soul is empty.” The awakening comes ultimately to every man, and it is well when it does not come too late.
2. Intellect fails to find spiritual truth. Spiritual things are spiritually discerned, and the unrest of many arise from the fact that they have cast off the yoke of him who alone was able to say, “I am the Truth.”
3. Self-righteousness fails to bring salvation. See our Lord’s words respecting the Pharisees. The house built on the sand stands side by side with the house founded upon the rock; but the testing-time comes to both.
4. The world fails to afford a home. Whether we will or not, the world must fail us at last. If we make it our servant, we shall rule like kings; if we make it our god, in our hour of helplessness it will cast us off.
CONCLUSION. “There be many that say, Who will show us any good? Lord, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us.”A.R.
Hos 8:7 (first clause)
What shall the harvest be?
In Scripture “the wind” is an emblem of vanity or folly, and “the whirlwind” of sudden and unexpected destruction. Here the latter is declared to be the product of the former. As a gentle “wind” may be the precursor of the “whirlwind,” so the foolish policy of Israel would be followed by resistless disaster. By a change of figure in the following clause, Hosea announces that plans which at first seemed successful would bring no ultimate advantage. The clause may be thus paraphrased: “That which is sown produces no stalk, or even if it does the stalk will yield no grain; or if so be it does yield any, foreign armies shall swallow it up.” The principle which underlies this teaching is sufficiently evident in the first clause, the consideration of which suggests the following truths:
I. THAT MEN SHALL REAP AS THEY HAVE SOWN IS A DIVINE AND UNIVERSAL LAW.
1. This law is seen in nature. Sow wheat, and without further anxiety, you are confident that you will reap wheat, and not something else. And not in kind only, but in quantity, whether abundantly or sparsely, you will reap as you sowed. The child is surprised to see his own name appear written in living green; but he who sowed the seed in that form sees in it only what is natural and usual.
2. This law asserts itself in social life. If a nation allows its children to be brought up without regard to the sanctities of life, it finds its retribution in crowded jails and asylums, in political insecurity, in death-bringing pestilence, etc. Having sown the wind, it reaps the whirlwind. So it is with the methods adopted by despotic tyranny. History shows how often repressive measures, excessive and uncertain punishments, etc; have culminated in the whirlwind of revolution which has overwhelmed and wrecked orderly society.
3. this law is visible in the culture of the mind and the occupations of life. Contrast the destiny of the indolent shifty schoolboy with that of the steady student who yearly grows in intellectual capacity.
4. This law never fails in the moral and religious sphere. Suppose a man resolves to do that which will pay in a financial sense. He deliberately abjures righteousness for expediency, resolving at all costs to win wealth. He does win it. He reaps according to the seed he has sown, but it is no wonder if in his moral being he is “given over to a reprobate mind.” On the other hand, the religious man gives up a profitable practice because he believes it to be immoral. The result is that he fails to reap riches because he has not sown for them, but he does reap the bliss of having a conscience void of offense towards God and towards men.
II. THAT THIS LAW SOMETIMES ASSERTS ITSELF IN THE SAD EXPERIENCE OF SINNERS EVEN IN THIS PRESENT LIFE. “Even as I have seen, they that plough inequity, and sow wickedness, reap the same” (Job 4:8). Retribution often comes (as it came to Israel) through the sin that at first brought nothing but success. The notorious life of James Fisk, of New York, was a remarkable illustration of the declaration, “The wicked shall fall by their own wickedness.”
1. Examples from Scripture.
(1) Haman plotted against Mordecai to his own destruction. His was the vaulting ambition that overleaps itself.
(2) Daniel’s foes were themselves cast into the lion’s den.
(3) The Pharisees found that the cross to which they triumphantly nailed our Lord was at once the means of their confusion and of his victory over the world.
2. Examples from experience. Pope Alexander VI. Tried to poison his friend Cardinal Adrian. Through the mistake of his cupbearer, he himself died by the cup which was meant to destroy another. The Regent Morton was another example. So was Thomas Cromwell, of whom Macaulay says, “No one ever made a more unscrupulous use of the legislative power for the destruction of his foes;” and it was by these means he was himself destroyed.
2. Common proverbs illustrate the text. “Ashes always fly in the face of him who throws them.” “Harm watch, harm catch,” etc. Thus, even in outward circumstances, the words of the text have been fulfilled; but how much more terribly in that inward retribution which is veiled even from the victim’s dearest friends! The anxiety that fears detection, the loss of self-respect, the horror of being alone, the failure of hope, the growing dread of the future, have caused many a man, even on earth, to know what it is to “reap the whirlwind.” But observe finally
III. THAT THIS LAW WILL ULTIMATELY PROCLAIM ITSELF WITH UNMISTAKABLE DISTINCTNESS. Sin’s retribution is not always seen here. Human taws may be powerless to reach a recognized offender. Social morality may be too degraded to rebuke his sin. For these and other reasons much is necessarily left to the future, when crooked things will be made straight. Perhaps it is well that it should be so. It is for our profit that we should walk by faith, and not by sight. God does not append instant pain to every act of disobedience. He deals with us as men, not as children. To do right not because it pays, but because it is right, is the obedience of the wise man, not that of the petted child; and it is the higher God ever seeks. Hence he has contented himself with giving a few signs that his Law cannot be broken with impunity, and these point us on to the day when righteousness and truth shall be crowned, and wrong and falsehood cursed amidst the “Amens” of the universe. In such events as those to which we have referred, we see a few ripening ears which tell us what the harvest will be when those who have sown the wind shall reap the whirlwind. This experience, so far as it refers to the future retribution, denotes:
1. That it is sudden in its arrival. (See MtMat 24:37-39; Pro 29:1; 1Th 5:2)
2. That it is resistless in its approach. Who can arrest the whirlwind (see Psa 1:4; Rev 6:15)?
3. That it is terrible in its effects. Compare the destruction of men’s works by a whirlwind, with the desolation of the worldling’s hopes by death.
CONCLUSION.
1. Show how close is the connection between this life and the life to come. That is the reaping of this sowing. Therefore do not wait till harvest-time before beginning to sow in righteousness.
2. Show how possible it is, through God‘s goodness, to reap a harvest. Both of Christian character and of Christian work the promise is true, “He that soweth and he that reapeth will rejoice together.”A.R.
Hos 8:12
The inspiration of Scripture.
This is an emphatic declaration of the Divine origin of Scripture. If it required utterance in Hosea’s day, it equally demands our earnest consideration. The accessibility and cheapness of God’s Word has tended to its neglect. Because it is less rare it appears to many less precious. In the reign of Edward I. a copy would cost 37, and as a laborer earned only three half-pence as his daily wage, it represented to him the product of fifteen years’ work. How different now! Probably the abundance of religious and other literature has also done something to divert attention from the Bible. In fear of this Luther wished that his own books were burnt, “because,” said he, “I fear lest they should hinder men from reading the Bible, that Book of books, in comparison whereof all the books in the world are but waste paper.” If all were convinced that Scripture is a revelation from God, such neglect would be less frequent; and therefore it may be well to consider our belief in Divine inspiration, which the occult influence of materialistic philosophy has done much to weaken. May the Spirit of truth! give us definiteness of conception, and may the Spirit of love give us generosity of tone.
I. THAT INSPIRATION IS CONSTANT WITH REASON. If it be admitted that God exists as the Creator of man, it is reasonable to expect that he would so tar direct and control the human mind as to secure the ends of moral government. We do not believe that the laws of physical necessity are paramount. We refuse to throw the reins to the modern Phaeton, who drives he knows not whither, and who cares not though the whole world of, Christian thought and of moral life be burnt to ashes. The theory that the universe is a vast machine, governed only by the laws of material organization, and that all its affairs are carried on by its own conceited powers, leads ultimately to the abasement of man and to the abolition of God; and from the abyss of despair to which Positivism leads us we recoil with horror. Our soul is something more than the concatenation of physical causes and effects; thought is not the mere product of movements in the particles of brain-matter; and love to each other and to God is higher than the ganglionic affection with which it may be associated. We believe that, though we are endued with freedom, God has not renounced all control over us; that side by side with our plans is a concurrent Providence evolving good; that the words are profoundly true, “in him we live, anti move, and have our being.” It is to those with such a belief we are addressing ourselves, and say the inspiration of Scripture is what you might reasonably expect. If God control the physical world, it is not incongruous that he should present to human minds, and incline them to regard, and to communicate truths which relate to man’s future destiny. If he make his sun to rise and flood the natural world with light, he will not leave the intellectual creation in darkness. In this thought lies the essential truth of inspiration. We shall not attempt to enumerate all the methods of Divine revelation. God’s ways are various in this, as in the natural world. He can hurl up an island by volcanic force or he can build it by the multitudinous labors of coral insects. He can split a rock by the crash of the sea, or let a tiny stream trickle through it till it falls asunder. So in his revelations, Sometimes a voice has spoken, as on Sinai, and during the ministry of our Lord. Sometimes angels have appeared to speak to Abraham in his tent, or to the women at Christ’s grave. The future has been revealed, now in dreams, as to Joseph; now in visions, as to Ezekiel. But we speak not of these revelations (), but of inspiration (), the direct internal suggestion given to men who wrote and spoke for God, giving to us in Scripture an authoritative rule of faith and practice.
II. THAT INSPIRATION IS CLAIMED FOR ITSELF BY SCRIPTURE.
1. These writers, who were evidently modest, humble men, declare that they were imbued with supernatural knowledge; that they knew what they could not recognize by intellectual research, being wrought on directly by the Holy Ghost; e.g. 2Sa 23:2; Mat 10:20; 1Pe 1:11, etc.
2. The truths they uttered justify such pretensions. Think fairly of any one of these men, consider his previous culture, his mental capacity, the condition of the world around him, mentally and morally, and see whether the dignity of Mosaic theology, the devout wisdom of the psalms, the pregnancy of prophecy, the nobility of moral tone throughout Scripture, could find source in the writers themselves. Above and behind them all a voice says,” I have written the great [or, ‘multitudinous’] things of my Law.”
3. We may rest our belief in the inspiration of the Old Testament on declarations in the New. And these ultimately depend on the authority of Christ, the everlasting Word of God. Our Lord refers to several writers by name, appealing to them as of Divine authority, and using their utterances in his great conflict in the wilderness. He habitually spoke of” the Law and the prophets “as giving a revelation of God’s will, saying about these, “I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.” His promises also to his disciples give authority to their utterances (comp. Joh 14:17, Joh 14:26; Joh 16:13). (Note the effects produced in human society by the direct and indirect influence of Scripture)
III. THAT INSPIRATION IS TO BE DISTINGUISHED BOTH FROM
(1) GENIUS AND
(2) FROM THE ORDINARY WORK OF GRACE IN THE HEART OF MAN.
1. Job 32:8 is a declaration that intellectual gifts are of God; and some speak of Shakespeare and of others as “inspired” men. In Job’s sense they were inspired; but their thought is not parallel with the thought of Scripture. The Bible writers were not men of extraordinary ability; nothing in their history, or claims, or writings would indicate that they were; and sometimes they affirm that it was by giving up their own thinking for trust and prayer that they knew God’s will.
2. Nor must the inspiration of the sacred writers be considered as identical with that being “filled with the Spirit,” etc; of which we often read. It was even given sometimes independently of character, as to Balaamthough (as there is congruity in all God’s works, so there was in this) usually it was associated with sanctified character. The two were separable, yet true men spoke of truth, pure men of purity, devout men of God. “Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. They were not unconscious instrumentsmere automata. God employed their faculties, but did not supersede them. Each man retained his own individuality. It is well [or us that it was so. We read the psalms and hear the voice of God; yet we hear also in them the sobs and songs of man. We find Divine truth in Paul’s Epistles; yet it is commended to us in Paul’s human argument. Whether, however, it be in the thunder of Isaiah or in the trembling of Jeremiah, whether in the logic of Paul or the mysticism of John, we hear throughout all the declaration of God, “I have written,” etc. “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God.”
CONCLUSION. Never account God‘s Word “a strange thing.”
1. We may do so by applying its precepts and promises to others and not to ourselves, as it’ they were foreign to us.
2. We may do so by allowing God’s Word to lie beside us unread. Illustrate our duty by the story of the conversion of St. Augustine.A.R.
HOMILIES BY J.R. THOMSON
Hos 8:2
Israel’s cry.
It could not be that, however tempted and however sinful, the children of the covenant should lose all remembrances of the mercies shown to them and the blessings promised to them. God had not forgotten them, neither did they altogether forget God. This cry, represented as rising to Heaven from Israel’s lips, seems natural enough: “My God, we know thee.”
I. WHEN A CRY OF HYPOCRISY, FEAR, OR SELFISHNESS, IT WAS VAIN. Alas! It was often this. Superstition led the people to conjoin the worship of Jehovah with the worship of idols. It would seem that, in their ignorant, selfish, worthless religiousness, they wished to stand well with both. There was a measure of truth in the cry; for the children of Abraham had a right to look to Jehovah and say, “My God,” and they could justly add, “We know thee.” Yet, occupying the position they did, their utterance was unheard by and unacceptable to the Searcher of hearts.
II. WHEN A CRY OF SINCERITY AND FAITH, IT WAS ACCEPTABLE. It was not that the words were wrong in themselves; it was the spirit that was defective and blamable. When such words came from filial, grateful, spiritual natures, most welcome were they to the ear of the Supreme. The language admits of, nay, it naturally expresses, devoutnessa joyful appropriation, heartfelt communion. It rejoices in an honorable and blessed relationship; it acknowledges a happy, elevating, and unbroken familiarity.T.
Hos 8:6
The broken idol
The calf-worship in northern Palestine is an example of the inconsistencies to which human nature is liable, and the declensions incident to social and national life. The indignation of the prophet is a fit expression of the displeasure of Jehovah. And the threat conveyed in the language of the text must have been felt by those to whom it was addressed to be as righteously deserved as it was certain to be executed. The lesson of the passage is a more general and extensive one than appears upon the surface. We are reminded of
I. MAN‘S PRONENESS TO SET OTHER OBJECTS IN THE SUPREME PLACE WHICH OF RIGHT IS GOD‘S. Every object, every being, every pursuit, which men place in the position which is God’s alone, becomes an idol. Thus idolatry is a sin of all times. Pleasure, fame, learning, power, etc; all by turns assume the throne of the heart, stand in the shrine of Deity.
II. SUCH IDOLATRY CAN ONLY ISSUE IN HUMAN DISAPPOINTMENT. The vanity of trusting to the works of their own hands was impressed again and again upon Israel, until at length idolatry was rendered forever impossible to them. How much of the Old Testament consists of warnings that to trust in other refuges, in other helpers, than in Jehovah is the way to shame, confusion, and destruction! “Confounded be all they that serve graven images.” Who is there that has forsaken God, and sought another deliverer, but has been miserably disappointed?
III. THE DIVINE DISPLEASURE IS MANIFESTED TOWARDS SUCH AS FORSAKE GOD FOR OTHER HELPERS. His honor he will not give to another. He sent prophets to Israel, and inspired them to upbraid and to denounce the unfaithful and apostate. The greater the mercies the Hebrew nation had enjoyed, the greater the Divine indignation with those who, having been so favored, had so rebelled.
IV. DOOM AND DESTRUCTION ARE PRONOUNCED BOTH UPON IDOLS AND UPON THOSE WHO TRUST IN THEM. “The calf shall be broken in pieces.” The reed, upon which the faithless leans, shall pierce his side. He shall see the hosts in which he trusted melt into nothingness before his eyes. Riches shall take wings and fly away. The bubble of honor shall burst and vanish. The blossom of power shall be nipped, or the fruit shall fall unripe. Man is but man, and not God.
V. THE PURPOSE OF THIS PROVISION IS TO LEAD TO REPENTANCE AND TO RETURN UNTO THE LORD. Declarations of displeasure and denunciations of wrath afford no pleasure to the Divine mind that authorizes them. God’s threat to destroy all rivals to his authority and supremacy must indeed be literally fulfilled. But for those who return to the God they have forsaken, there are open arms, there is a heart of mercy, there are words of pardon, there is welcome, restoration, and life.T.
Hos 8:7
Sowing the wind and reaping the whirlwind.
Sowing and reaping in the natural world are processes of husbandry so closely and vitally connected, that they obviously suggest corresponding connections in the spiritual realm. “Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” Such is the great moral law. Yet there is a characteristic of the working of this law which is very suggestive. Whilst the kind remains the same, the measure of what is reaped largely exceeds the measure of what is sown. This is the lesson of the text. What is sown is the wind; what is reaped is the whirlwind.
I. IS WHAT SENSE SINNERS SOW THE WIND. The sins for which Israel was chiefly denounced by the prophet were idolatry and heathen alliances, in both of which the Lord’s honor was given to another, and the confidence due to him was unrighteously and foolishly transferred. Now, the wind is the emblem of emptiness and unsubstantial vanity. Accordingly, the language of the text teaches that the conduct of Israel was foolish and vain. And this may be asserted of all who, by vice, or crime, or irreligion, depart from God.
II. IN WHAT SENSE SINNERS REAP THE WHIRLWIND. Under the government of a just and almighty Ruler, it could not be that Israel or any nation could forsake the true religion and abandon lofty principles, without suffering the consequences in the penalties attached to disobedience and rebellion. But the point of the text is to be found in the apparent disproportion between the offence and the penalty. Israel hoped for safety; instead of this, and as the result of apostasy, Israel went into captivity. The national life of the kingdom and people of Samaria was absolutely destroyed, never to be revived. Thus a mighty whirlwind, the messenger of Divine indignation, carried the people away in their sins. Thus is it with all high-handed and stiff-necked sinners. Their rebellion and apostasy has even to human eyes the appearance of a sowing to the wind; but in the order of the Divine government it is appointed that such shall reap the whirlwind. We read the lesson in the awful fate which has overtaken all nations which have been unfaithful to their calling, which have defied the righteous and Divine Governor. And in how many instances of individual life have we seen the operation of the same law! Moral ruin and utter overthrow have followed upon estrangement and rebellion. The very confidence which sinners repose in the idols they choose for themselves becomes the occasion of their more complete and irremediable confusion. Judgment is delayed; but the stores of retributive force accumulate, and in due time the tornado of Divine indignation sweeps down upon the sinner’s head with irresistible force, issuing in the catastrophe of temporal and spiritual ruin.T.
Hos 8:9
Hired lovers
Israel excited the displeasure of Jehovah by not merely renouncing confidence in him, but by placing confidence in foreign nations and strange gods. And Israel aggravated the offence by rejecting the aid which her covenant God would readily and gratuitously have bestowed, and by expending her treasure in purchasing from neighboring nations assistance which proved to be vain and unprofitable. Her conduct is compared to that of an adulteress, so wanton as to purchase with her husband’s money the affection and embraces of a stranger.
I. IT IS THE INFATUATION OF SIN TO FORSAKE THE FREE AND UNDESERVED FAVOR OF GOD. The folly of such a course is apparent to all whose minds are not under the influence of prejudice and passion. When the fountain of living waters is accessible, how wretched is the self-delusion of those who turn away from it!
II. THIS INFATUATION IS STILL MORE APPARENT WHEN IT LEADS SINNERS TO TRUST TO VAIN REFUGES. The cisterns which are sought when the fountain is forsaken are broken cisterns, which can hold no water. Such was the powerlessness, the insufficiency of the gods and the kings whom Israel sought. And in that they represent the men, the systems, the societies, the pursuits, which sinners are ever wont to exalt to the seat of God.
III. TILE INFATUATION OF SINNERS LEADS THEM TO PART WITH EVERYTHING IN ORDER TO OBTAIN NOTHING. Israel spent her treasure, drained her resources; and for what? Only to endure the bitterest humiliation, the most cruel disappointment. There was none, in the day of her sorrow, that could help, deliver, or comfort hernone! And this was all she obtained for her apostasy. The lovers, the friends, whom she “hired” were unfaithful and unhelpful. So is it with all who put their confidence in men and in princes. Men give up character and friends, a good conscience, a bright hope; they part with all, and what do they receive in return? The pleasures of sin for a season; but very soon weariness, disappointment, and misery. And “the end of these things is death.”T.
Hos 8:14
The Maker forgotten.
It is not an uncommon case that one who has received very substantial benefits from a fellow-man forgets his benefactor, and, when raised to a higher position in life, ignores those who by their exertions, sacrifices, and sympathy have contributed to his elevation. We deem such ingratitude reprehensible and almost monstrous. Yet how lightly do we regard those who are guilty of forgetfulness of their Creator and Redeemer! And yet this has been a common fault from the days of Israel of old down to the present time.
I. THE GUILT OF FORGETTING GOD, GENERALLY CONSIDERED. This appears when it is borne in mind:
1. That God is our Maker. To him we owe our existence; and to be unmindful of our Creator is the grossest sin.
2. That God has not forgotten us. He did not create man to leave him to himself, to live or to die. On the contrary, his care is ever over us, his love is always towards us. The tokens of his remembrances are always around us, in the bounties of his providence and in the proffers of his gospel. 3. That God has done much to keep himself in our memory. This is condescension indeed on the part of him who is the theme of heaven’s eternal song; whom they praise day and night in his temple. Yet on every side we see tokens of God’s presence, we hear the tones of his voice. He is not far from every one of us. Unnumbered suggestions of his presence, unnumbered reminders of his Fatherly love, aggravate the guilt of the unreflecting and ungrateful
II. THE SPECIAL GUILT OF FORGETTING GOD ON THE PART OF ISRAEL OF OLD AND ON THE PART OF CHRISTIANS NOW. To the children of Abraham God was a covenant God; he had done great things for their fathers and for them. To forget One who had the highest claims upon their memory, their fidelity, their devotion,this was guilt indeed. Yet not comparable to the guilt of those who enjoy the advantages secured to such as live under the sound of the gospel, and in the midst of the privileges of the Church. How, if we forget God, can we hope, can we ask, that he should remember us in mercy and for good?T.
HOMILIES BY D. THOMAS
Hos 8:1, Hos 8:2
The conventional Church
“Set the trumpet to thy mouth. He shall come as an eagle against the house of the Lord, because they have transgressed my covenant, and trespassed against my Law. Israel shall cry unto me, My God, we know thee.” “It is not unusual,” says Elzas,” for the prophets, without naming the invading foe, to announce his approach (see Isa 13:1-22). The words are singularly abrupt, and indicate the suddenness of the threatened invader. ‘Like an eagle.’ If this be a prophecy against Judah, as some have supposed, then by the eagle Nebuchadnezzar is meant, who is often compared to the king of birds (see Jer 48:1-47.; Eze 17:1-24.; Dan 7:4). But if the prophecy be against Israel, which is the most likely, then Shalmaneser King of Assyria is intended, who for his rapidity, avarice, rapacity, and strength is fitly compared to the royal bird. ‘ The house of the Lord.’ This cannot mean here the temple at Jerusalem, which is otherwise so designated, since the threatenings are most probably denounced against the kingdom of the ten tribes. It must therefore be taken to denote the people of Israel, the whole nation viewed as the family of God.” By the “house of the Lord,” therefore, we are to understand not the temple at Jerusalem, nor the land of Judaea, but Israel as a section of the professed people of God. The house of the Lord was a conventional Church. Look at the words as presenting a conventional Church in three aspects.
I. AS ENDANGERED. “He shall come as an eagle against the house of the Lord.” How comes the eagle? Ravenously, suddenly, and swiftly; it pounces down on its prey with the rapidity of lightning, and fastens its talons on its heart. A conventional Church is in greater danger than any secular community. Why?
1. Its guilt is greater. It has the oracles of God, and it professes faith in those oracles, and yet its heart is out of sympathy with God and his laws. “Wee unto thee, Chorazin,” etc.! “He that knoweth his master’s will and doeth it not, shall be beaten with many stripes.” The hell of conventional Churches will be, methinks, deeper and darker than any other hell in the black domain of retribution.
2. Its influence is more pernicious. Whose influence on society is the most banefulthe man who denies God, the man who ignores him, or the man that misrepresents him? The last, I trow. The conventional Church gives society a real-representation of God and his religion. Of all the men in Christendom there is no man who is a greater bane to his race than he who wears the garb of religion but is destitute of its spirit. Surely the eagle of retribution will wing its way to no class more savagely and more quickly than to these conventional religionists.
II. AS WARNED. “Set the trumpet to thy mouth.” This is Heaven’s command to the prophet. Blow a blast that shall thrill every heart in the vast congregation of Israel. Why sound the warning?
1. Because the danger is tremendous. It is utter destruction.
2. Because the danger is at hand. The eagle has spread its pinions, has mounted the air, fastened his eye on the victim, and is about swooping down in fury.
3. Because the danger may be avoided. Were there no escape, why blew the trumpet? Why raise the alarm? Thank God there is escape as long as life continues.
“While the lamp holds out to burn
The vilest sinner may return.”
What is wanted now is a ministry of warning to conventional Churches. We want bold, intrepid, fiery prophets, like unto Elijah, to sound the trumpet of alarm to all who are at ease in Zion.
III. AS REPENTANT. “Israel shall cry unto me, My God, we know thee.” The alarm has been taken and the refuge is sought. “My God, we know thee.” “This is life eternal to know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.” Oh, hasten the day when all conventional Churches shall be brought to a deep and experimental knowledge of God and his Son! When this transpires, the dense cloud that has concealed the sun of Christianity shall be swept away, and the quickening beam shall fall on every heart. The mountain that has obstructed the chariot of redemptive truth shall be leveled to a plain, and the wheels shall move with lightning speed. “The Word of the Lord shall have free course, and be glorified.”D.T.
Hos 8:3, Hos 8:4
The abandonment of good, and the consequent pursuit of evil.
“Israel hath cast off the thing that is good.” Two things are contained in these verses.
I. THE ABANDONMENT OF GOOD. “Israel hath rejected what is good” (Elzas). The good here undoubtedly refers to the true worship of the true God. Observe:
1. That true worship is the “good thing” for man. It is good not only because God requires it, but because it is the necessary condition of spiritual life, growth, harmony, and blessedness. True worship is the soul’s only heaven.
2. That this “good thing” man sometimes abandons. Israel was once a true worshipper, but the true worship it had now “cast off.” Fallen angels were once true worshippers, and many a human spirit once inspired with true devotion has fallen into worldliness and idolatry. Moral mind has the power of abandoning the highest good.
3. That the abandonment of this “good thing” imperils the soul. “The enemy shall pursue them.” Moral good is the only effective safeguard of the spirit; when this is given up or “cast off,” all the gates of the soul are thrown open to tormenting fiends. The walls of the vineyard axe broken down, and it lies exposed to the tread and ravages of every moral beast.
II. THE CONSEQUENT PURSUIT OF EVIL. “They have set up kings, but not by me,” etc. The setting up of kings here refers to the founding of the kingdom by Jeroboam, and to the entire series of Israelitish kings. The kings of Israel were not according to Divine ordination (1Ki 11:27-40). “Their silver and their gold have they made them idols, that they may be out off.” From these kings of their own making came the setting up of the idolatrous calf-worship which was started by Jeroboam. Though silver was not used in the construction of the golden calves, it was employed to support the idolatrous worship. Thus, because they abandoned the “good thing,” they went wrong in their politics and religion. They made their own kings and their own gods. When once men give up the right they rush into the wrong. Let a man go wrong in relation to God, and he will go wrong in all his relations, secular and spiritual.
CONCLUSION. There is nothing in connection with the human race of such transcendent importance as worship. The religious element is the strongest of all elements; and men must have a god of some sort or other, and their god will fashion their character and determine their destiny.
“And yet from him we turn away,
And fill our hearts with worthless things;
And fires of avarice melt the clay,
And forth the idol springs.
Ambition’s flame and passion’s heat.
By wondrous alchemy, transmute
Earth’s dross, to raise some gilded brute
To fill Jehovah’s seat.”
(J. H. Clinch)
Hos 8:5-7
Idolatry
“Thy calf, O Samaria, hath cast thee off.” These verses present to us idolatry in five aspects.
I. AS ABHORRENT TO JEHOVAH. “Thy calf, O Samaria, hath cast thee off; mine anger is kindled against them.” By a synecdoche, Samaria is here used for all the ten tribes. There is no allusion in history to any calf set up in the city of Samaria, but its existence in Bethel, the most celebrated place of worship in the kingdom, is a matter of certainty. “The introduction of the worship of the golden calves by Jeroboam, in imitation of that of Apis at Memphis, and of Mnevis at Heliopolis, which he must have seen during his residence in Egypt, paved the way for the imitation and adoption of the gross idolatries practiced by the Phoenicians, Syrians; and Chaldeans.’ Now, against this idolatry Jehovah declares his anger “to be kindled.” The language is, of course, anthropomorphic, and used only to express his unconquerable opposition to idolatry, the foulest of all evilsa violation of his command, “Thou shalt have no other god beside me,” It is the abominable thing which he hates. The fact that idolatry is abhorrent to the great God is the grand reason why his loyal servants should consecrate themselves to his service.
II. AS ANTAGONISTIC TO MORAL PURITY. “How long shall they be incapable of purity?” (Elzas). Where there is not supreme love to the supremely Good, there is no soil in which one solitary virtue can germinate, there is no foundation on which one stone can be laid for the temple of goodness. Hence the history of idolatry shows that it is inseparably associated with pollution and crime. Idolatry is a fountain essentially corrupt, and all its streams are filthy and foul. Paul’s description in the first chapter of Romans is true to universal fact. If the world is ever to be made virtuous, it must have the one true and living God presented to it as the one Object of supreme love and worship.
III. As AN OUTRAGE ON REASON. “For from Israel was it also: the workman made it; therefore it is not God.” “It is the greatest folly,” says an old author, “to look upon that which derives its excellency from ourselves as superior to us, and that in the highest degree; to forsake God that made us, and to make that to be a god unto us that we have made ourselves. If one be maintained or raised by another, he is expected to be serviceable to him. In this relation we stand to God, but idolatry makes men go against the very principles of reason. They fashion the idol and yet account it their god; they are made and sustained by God, and yet forget him.” And yet this folly men are constantly committing every day, not only in heathen lands, but in Christendom. Men are everywhere making their gods. Power, money, pleasure, fame,these be thy gods, O England!
IV. As DOOMED TO DESTRUCTION. “But the calf of Samaria shall be broken in pieces.” “All idolatry must be destroyed” (Exo 34:13; Deu 7:5; Eze 20:7).
1. God has destroyed idols by the gospel.
2. God is destroying idols by the gospel. D.T.
“As I live, saith the Lord, all the earth shall be filled with my glory.” “In that day a man shall cast his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which they made each one for himself to worship, to the moles and to the bats: to go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the tops of the ragged rocks, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth.”
V. As PRODUCTIVE OF GREAT EVIL. “They have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind,” etc. “As the husbandman reaps the same kind of grain which he has sown, but in far greater abundance, so he who sows the wind shall have the whirlwind to reap.” “It hath no stalk.” Nothing that can yield a blossom. “The bud shall yield no meal.” “If they should have a stalk, and that stalk should have a blossom, that blossom shall yield no fruit; and if there be fruit, the sower shall not enjoy it, for strangers shall eat it. The Israelites should be unsuccessful in all their undertakings, and whatever partial gains they might acquire would be eagerly seized by the Assyrians” (Elzas).
1. All men are sowing. Every human act is a seed.
2. Some are sowing worthless seed” wind.” The worldling, the man of pleasure, the conventional religionist, the speculative skeptic, are all “sowing the wind.”
3. The more worthless the seed sown, the more terrible the reaping. “Reap the whirlwind.” Great is the power of the whirlwind. The Scripture describes it as very great. In 1Ki 19:11 it “rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks.” Sabdicos reports that Cambyses’ soldiers being at dinner in a sandy place, there arose a whirlwind and drove the sand upon them, so that it covered them all. “Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”
“Hear, Father! hear and aid!
If I have loved too well; if I have shed,
In my vain fondness, o’er a mortal head
Gifts on thy shrine, my God, more fitly laid;
If I have sought to live
But in one light, and made a mortal eye
The lonely star of my idolatry;
Thou art Love; oh, pity and forgive!”
(Mrs. Hemans)
Hos 8:11, Hos 8:12
Perversion of worship
“Because Ephraim hath made many altars to sin.” Israel was to have only one altar, and that in the place where the Lord would reveal his Name (Deu 12:5). But, instead of that, Ephraim had built a number of altars in different places to multiply the sin of idolatry, and thereby heap more and more guilt upon itself (Delitzsch). The passage leads us to notice the perversion of worship. This is one of the oldest, the most prevalent, and most baneful sins amongst mankind. Men have perverted worship, not only by making false gods, but by making false altars for the true God. There is only one altar in true worship, and that altar is Christ (Heb 13:10). The text leads us to make two remarks in relation to false worship.
I. IT IS A GREAT SIN.
1. It is a very propagative sin. “Ephraim hath made many altars.” “It men leave the rule,” says an old author, “they know not where to stay; hence the multiplying of things thus amongst the Papistsfive hundred altars in some one temple.” How sublimely antagonistic the Jews were to the introduction of any altar but one (Jos 22:11)! But now they had “many.” Once admit a wrong thing in worship, and that one thing will multiply itself; superstition will give it fertility. The Romish Church is a sad illustration of this, and the Anglican Church in some sections is multiplying examples.
2. It is a self-punishing sin. “Altars shall be unto him to sin.” The idea probably is, “As you have gone on persisting to multiply altars contrary to my will, I will let you alone; you shall go on. Your altars shall be a sin to you.” That is, thus seeing they will have them, they shall have them; they shall have enough of them. Let them go on in their ways; let them multiply their sin. They make a great deal of stir for it, and have it they must; they refuse to see the light; they are prejudiced against the way of God’s worship. Let them have their desires; let them have, saith God, governors to establish by their authority, and teachers to defend by their subtle arguments, what they wish for. They multiply altars to sin, and they shall be to sin, even to harden them; their hearts are set upon them, and they will have them and love them, and they shall be hardened in their heart’s desire in what is evil. And as it shall be to them for sin, so it shall be to them for misery, the fruit of sin; for so sin is taken very frequently in Scripture for the fruit of sin. They will have them to sin, and they shall find in them the fruit of sinmisery. The text leads us to remark that
II. IT IS A SIN AGAINST GREAT LIGHT. “I have written to him the great things of my Law, but they were counted as a strange thing.” They could not say they sinned in ignorance. God gave them directions most concise and abundant concerning the nature and object of true worship. Some translate the words,” I may prescribe my laws to them by myriads; they will treat it as a strange thing.”
1. God has given us laws concerning worship.
2. Those laws are oft repeated. By myriads or by thousands. We have “line upon line, precept upon precept.”
3. These oft-repeated laws leave false worshippers without excuse.D.T.
Hos 8:14
Neither the religion nor security of a nation to be judged by appearances.
“For Israel bath forgotten,” etc. The “temples” referred to here are the idolatrous temples which Israel had built after the models of those built by the Syro-phoenicians; and the “fenced cities” refers to those fortified places which they had erected against foreign invaders. The words imply that neither the temples nor the “fenced cities” were any proof either of their religion or their security.
I. THE MULTIPLICATION OF TEMPLES IS NO INFALLIBLE PROOF OF THE GROWTH OF RELIGION IN A COUNTRY. Temples were now multiplied in Israel. And the reason assigned is forgetfulness of their Maker. When strangers visit England and witness the number of our churches of all sects, and measures of beauty and size, their first impression would beWhat a religious people these English are! But when we think of the moral causes that often lead to the erection of temples, they rather prove our forgetfulness of God.
1. There is greed. Churches are sometimes built as an investment.
2. There is spite. One or two, or more, have received a grievance at the neighboring Church, and, inspired by spite, they set to the erection of another.
3. There is sectism. Episcopalians, Wesleyans, Congregationalists, all seek to rival each other in this respect; so that the multiplication of temples, we fear, must not be taken as a proof of the growth of religion.
II. THE INCREASE OF NATIONAL DEFENSES IS NO PROOF OF THE INCREASE OF NATIONAL SECURITY. “I will send a fire upon his cities.” When noble foreigners visit our shores, we, with our national vanity, seek to impress them with the greatness of our national defenses. We exhibit our fleets, our standing armies, our fortifications; we have our naval and military reviews. What fools are they who think that national security is in these things! The safety of a people is in the moral excellence of their character and the guardianship of Heaven.D.T.
HOMILIES BY J. ORR
Hos 8:1-4
Doomsday
The trumpet sounds the approach of judgment. It is judgment which begins at the house of God (1Pe 4:17). The “eagle” is the Assyrian; in later times the Roman (cf. Deu 28:49). The cause of the judgment is that constantly insisted on: “They have transgressed my covenant, and trespassed against my Law” (Hos 8:1).
I. KNOWLEDGE OF GOD THROUGH JUDGMENT. (Hos 8:2) In the day of doom Israel would cry to God, “My God, we know thee, we Israel” So at the last judgment:
1. Those who have hitherto denied God will be forced to acknowledge him. Their startled cry, when it is too late, will be, “My God, we know thee.” They will know him to their cost. They will no longer be able to disguise to themselves the fact of his existence or the reality of his power. No more pretence of ignorance, no more caviling, no more blasphemous defiance.
2. Those who have hitherto forgotten God will be force to remember him. They will experience a rude awakening from the careless security ,n which they have been living. They will find God’s words to be true, his warnings real, the “wrath to come” a dreadful certainty. It will be impossible longer to put off reflection, or to shut out thoughts of him with whom they have to do.
3. Those who have hitherto slighted God‘s friendship will be eager to make friends with him. They will address him as their God (“My God”), will recall past knowledge of him, will urge any pleas which they think will gain them mercy. They are as anxious now to make themselves out God’s friends as formerly they were to have nothing to do with him. In times of affliction or peril, as well as on the approach of death or judgment, sinners show themselves very willing to call on God. “Many will say unto me in that day, Lord, Lord,” etc. (Mat 7:22). Such pleas, however, will not avail. The repentance is too late, and it is not sincere. Israel would gain nothing by being of the seed of Jacob (cf. Mat 3:9).
II. AN INVARIABLE SEQUENCE. (Hos 8:3) Israel, having cast off good, would be pursued by the enemy. The sequence is short, simple, certain. It is as sure as any law of nature.
1. Antecedent. “Israel hath cast off good.” In every sense Israel had done this. The nation had
(1) cast out the knowledge of good (Hos 4:6);
(2) cast off the practice of good (Hos 4:1, Hos 4:7; Hos 5:4; Hos 6:7; Hos 7:1, Hos 7:2);
(3) despised the hope of good, the blessing and salvation promised on condition of obedience.
2. Consequent. “The enemy shall [or, ‘let the enemy’] pursue him.” The enemy pursues those who cast off good.
(1) Conscience pursues. The sinner cannot escape from its rebukes, scourgings, and pursuing memories.
(2) The laws of nature pursue. Nature is so constituted that its laws are on the side of the virtuous, and against those that do evil. Sin is followed by inevitable natural penalties.
(3) Divine justice pursues. There is, even in this life, a providential retribution which the sinner seldom escapes (cf. Deu 28:1-68). In any case there is a final judgment, when every one shall receive for the things done in the body, according to that he hath done, whether good or bad (2Co 5:10).
III. REPRESENTATIVE TRANSGRESSION. (Hos 8:4) Israel’s kings were not of God. They had been set up without consulting God, and had ruled in disregard of God’s will. The worship of the calves was in direct opposition to Divine commandment. It had its ground in political expediency. This lays bare to us the essence of ungodliness. Ungodliness:
1. Waives all regard to God‘s will in the shaping of life. It plans existence irrespectively of God. Whatever the ungodly man “sets up,” it is done “without God.” He seeks an independent being.
2. Makes gods for itself out of God‘s gifts. “Of their silver and gold have they made them idols.” The world becomes its god.
3. The end“cut off?”J.O.
Hos 8:5-7
Broken gods
Samaria would now discover the folly of trusting in her calf.
I. SAMARIA‘S CALF. (Hos 8:5, Hos 8:6)
1. The futility of making it. “From Israel was it also: the workman made it; therefore it is not God” (Hos 8:6). Idolatry is a huge absurdity. That cannot be a god which we make with our own hands (cf. Isa 40:18-20; Isa 44:9-20). As foolish is it to make a god of wealth, position, reputation, or anything created by man’s effort.
2. The folly of trusting in it. “Thy calf, O Samaria, hath cast thee off” (Hos 8:5); “The calf of Samaria shall be broken in pieces” (Hos 8:6).
(1) It could not help. 6
(2) It was helpless to save itself.
Anything earthly that man relies on will prove a vain help when God wills its overthrow, or the overthrow of him who depends on it.
3. The reward of serving it. “Mine anger is kindled against them” (Hos 8:5). God’s anger was kindled
(1) at the idolatry;
(2) at the sins connected with the idolatry;
(3) at the resistance shown to the means used for the nation’s spiritual recovery.
“How long will it be ere they attain to innocency?” The effects of this kindling of God’s anger are described in Hos 8:7. One effect would be the destruction of their idol (Hos 8:6).
II. SIN‘S PENALTIES. (Hos 8:7) Retribution is set forth under two images.
1. The wind and whirlwind. “They have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind.” “The wind is an image of vain human efforts, from which ruin is developed, as naturally as the wind becomes a tempest” (Schmoller). The image suggests:
(1) The insubstantiality of sinful objects of pursuit. Substanceless as wind (cf. Hos 12:1).
(2) That the sinner is not his own master. Wind is an image of the hurrying force of passion. The sinner’s passions hurry him along.
(3) That sin develops the elements of its own retribution. The sowing is congruous with the reaping. As the sinner is hurried along by sin, so he must submit to be swept along by God’s judgments. As he lived an unsubstantial life, he must submit to have the unsubstantiality of his life revealed by the tempest that lays it in ruins.
2. The blasted grain. “It hath no stalk.” etc. The thought here is that of designs frustrated at every stage. It appears first as if there would be no stalk. Then such stalk as there is yields no fruit. Or if, perchance, there should be any, it is devoured by strangers. Thus, life without God proves to be but deceptive show, promise without performance, effort without result. It has to reckon with God’s frown at every stage. He may nip its designs in their inception. He may thwart them a stage further on. He may prevent them from attaining final success. Or, if success be permitted, it is only that he may make their overthrow more striking in the end (Psa 73:18; cf. Hos 9:11, Hos 9:16).J.O.
Hos 8:8-10
Israel among the Gentiles.
We have here the Nemesis of a false desire of independence.
I. MINGLING WITH THE WORLD LEADS TO ABSORPTION BY THE WORLD. (Hos 8:8) It was the complaint against Ephraim that he had mixed himself among the people (Hos 7:8). He was not content to remain separate, as God had ordained. He must have his freedom (cf. Luk 15:11-13). We now see the end of this: “Israel is swallowed up.” He was:
1. Absorbed by the world. The Gentiles got wholly the possession of him. It is so spiritually with those who try to serve both God and mammon. The attempt to serve two masters proves vain. The world gains ground in the heart; God loses ground. By-and-by the world has the whole. The backslider is “swallowed up” (cf. 1Ti 6:9, 1Ti 6:10; 2Ti 4:10).
2. An object of contempt to the world. “Among the Gentiles as a vessel wherein there is no pleasure.” The world in its heart secretly despises those whom it has got under its influence, having turned them away from God. It holds them in contempt. Two kinds of men the world has respect forits own kind, and the thoroughly godly. It has no respect at all for the third something, that tries to be both and yet is neitherthe trimmer, the compromiser, the backslider. Nor, once it has them in its power, is it slow to show its contempt for them.
II. THE DESIRE TO BE INDEPENDENT OF GOD LEADS TO DEPENDENCE ON THE WORLD. (Hos 8:9) Israel went up to Assyria”a wild ass alone by itself.” We understand the figure to allude to Israel’s intractable spirit and desire of independence. The nation must, at all costs, be rid of God’s yoke, and go out “alone by itself.” The use it makes of its independence, however, is to go to Assyria. The motive is not, of course, to have Assyria’s yoke imposed on it instead of God’s; but this is the result. Seeking independence of God, it sinks into dependence on Assyria. Herein is imaged the end of all attempts at a false independence.
1. True freedom for mantrue independencedies in loyal acceptance of the rule of God. This gives inward emancipation and superiority to the seductions of the world.
2. Renouncing this, the soul sinks into a dependence on finite things, alien to its nature. It fails into bondage. It exchanges God’s service for a worse. It is ruled by the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life (l Joh 2:10). The prodigal, leaving his father’s house for freedom, ended by joining himself to a citizen in the “far country,” who sent him into his fields to feed swine (Luk 15:15, Luk 15:16).
III. TRAFFICKING WITH THE WORLD LEADS TO OPPRESSION BY THE WORLD. (Hos 8:10) Israel trafficked with the world for its favor”hired among the nations;” the result being that it was given up by God to be oppressed by the world”the burden of the king of princes.” The stages are
(1) sinful desire towards the world”hired lovers” (Hos 8:9);
(2) propitiation of the world, by gifts, alliances, etc.;
(3) absorption by the world and subjection to the world, as already described;
(4) oppression by the world. This power of Assyria over Israel was:
1. Divinely given. “Now will I gather them.” It was God, and no one else, who gave this people into the hands of the foreigners.
2. Distressing. Israel would suffer much in exile. Her burden would be heavy; her numbers would be diminished. The world is a terrible tyrant over those whom it gets in its power.
3. Equitable. We trace here the same proportionateness between sin and punishment as falls so frequently to be noticed. They voluntarily “hired” among the nations; now they are oppressed by Gentile tribute.J.O.
Hos 8:11-14
Religion become sin
Israel’s holiest things became sin to them through their disregard of God’s commandments.
I. THE ALTAR BECOME SIN. (Hos 8:11) The law required that there should be but one altar, and that in the place where God had put his Name (Deu 12:1-32). Ephraim disregarding this command, multiplied altars, and so committed sin. The worship at local altars was at most but tolerated in the days of the judges, of Samuel, and the early kings, in consideration of the unsettled state of the nation (1Ki 3:2). It became sin once a house had been built for God’s worship. Had it been necessary, after the division of the nation, to appoint a district center for Israel, God would have directed the people in the choice of one. They, however, neither desired nor sought for guidance, but organized their worship in their own way, blending with it idolatrous rites, and, beside Jehovah’s altars, reared altars to idols (Hos 10:1). They thus sinned, both in the number of their altars and in the use they put them to. Accordingly, God declares that these very altars, the things whereby they professed to worship him, would be imputed to them for sin. We are taught:
1. That God claims to regulate his own worship.
2. That wanton departures from the rule he has given is imputed as transgression.
3. That will-worship is not acceptable to God (Col 2:23).
4. That we cannot condone for disobedience in the matter of worship by either the number or magnificence of our services.
II. THE LAW BECOME SIN. (Hos 8:12) God had given Israel a Law, the myriad precepts of which would have guided them aright in every situation of life; but this Law Israel had “counted as a strange thing.” The Law, which was “holy, and just, and good,” became sin to the people through their neglect of it. Consider:
1. The dignity of the Law. It is God’s Law (“my Law”); one, yet many. Single in its principle” Thou shalt love the Lord thy God,” etc. (cf. Deu 6:5)yet manifold in its applications, branching out into an infinite multiplicity of precepts, and extending to every detail of life.
2. The accessibility of the Law. God had, to secure its being kept it: remembrance, put it in written form. The turn sometimes given to these words, “I would have written to him,” etc; is meaningless in the connection. The prophet is dealing with what Ephraim has done, not with what he might have done under certain conceivable circumstances in which he was never placed. The passage is a testimony to the existence of a written Law. We should remember our own privileges in the possession of a written revelation.
3. The neglect of the Law. Ephraim permitted this Law, great, wonderful, and holy as it was, fitted to instruct and guide him m the way of life, to be as “a strange thing” unto him. He forbore to study it. He neglected to practice it. The very Law thus redounded to his condemnation. How many act in a similar way with the Bible! They possess it, but leave it unopened, unstudied. The unread Book becomes sin to them. It will rise against then, in the judgment.
III. SACRIFICES BECOME SIN. (Hos 8:13) As seen before, sacrifices will not be accepted by God as a substitute for obedience (Hos 6:6; 1Sa 15:22). Without the right spirit in the offerer, they become as mere “flesh,” in which God takes no pleasure. The sacred thing becomes a thing common. Instead of atoning for iniquity, the sacrifices became themselves iniquity. They were imputed for sin. Neither the number nor magnitude of them could avert the wrath that was decreed. “They shall return to Egypt,” i.e. to a new Egypt, to Assyria.
IV. TEMPLES BECOME SIN. (Hos 8:14) As sacrifices cannot be taken instead of obedience, so temples cannot be accepted as a substitute for godliness. Israel “built temples,” but had “forgotten his Maker.” The very temples thus became as sin. The building of temples and the lavishing of outward adornment upon them often proceeds the more rapidity that God himself has been forgotten. Worship becomes externalism. The outward is made the most of, as if to condone for the want of the inward. It is not, however, outward temples that God primarily desires, but the temples of humble and contrite spirits (Isa 57:15). The former without the latter are sin.
V. FENCED CITIES BECOME SIN. (Hos 8:14) It is added that Judah had multiplied fenced cities. As sacrifices were substituted for obedience, and temples were substituted for godliness, so fenced cities got to be put instead of God himself. The sin lay in looking away from the pledged Divine help to mere earthly defenses. Those who do this are left at last to prove the worthlessness of their defenses. God would send a fire upon the cities, and it would devour the palaces. Human strength is no protection in the absence of God’s help; it is equally powerless to protect against God’s judgments.J.O.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
Hos 8:1. Set the trumpet to thy mouth Let the trumpet in thy mouth sound against the house of Judah. Houbigant. Hosea in this and the three following verses prophesies against Judah. Those who follow our interpretation suppose, that by the eagle here spoken of is meant Nebuchadnezzar. See Eze 17:3.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
2. THE JUDGMENT
A. Sowing the Wind brings forth the Whirlwind as a Harvest. Galling Dependence upon Assyria
Hos 8:1-14
1 To thy mouth (set) the trumpet:
Like the eagle (it is coming) upon the house of Jehovah,
Because they broke my Covenant,
And sinned against my Law.
2 To me they will cry:
My God,1 we know Thee, (we) Israel.
3 Yet Israel has rejected the good;
Let the enemy pursue him!2
4 They set up kings, but not by me,
Made princes, but I knew (them) not.
Their silver and their gold
They made into idols for themselves,
That it [silver and gold] might be destroyed.
5 He has rejected thy calf, Samaria,
My anger is inflamed against them,
How long shall ye be incapable of purity?
6 For that also [the calf] is from Israel,
The maker has formed it,
And it is no God,
For the calf of Samaria will become fragments.3
7 For they sowed wind and will reap a whirlwind,
It has no stalk,
(But) a sprout which will yield no meal;
If it should yield (any),
Strangers would devour it.
8 Israel is swallowed up,
Even now have they become among the nations,
Like a vessel, in which no pleasure is taken.
9 For they have gone up to Assyria;
(As) a wild-ass going alone by herself,
Ephraim gave presents4 (for) love.
10 Even if they give presents4 among the nations,
I will now gather [carry] them together (thither),
And in a little they will have sorrow for the tribute of the king of the princes.5
11 For Israel has increased altars for sinning,
They became to him altars for sinning.
12 I presented to him a myriad6 (precepts) of my Law,
(Yet) they are regarded as something strange.
13 My sacrificial offerings they sacrifice as flesh and eat (them):
Jehovah has no pleasure in them,
He will now remember their guilt,
And will punish their princes;
They will return to Egypt!
14 For Israel forgot his Creator
And built (idol-) temples,
And Judah increased the fortified cities:7
But I will send fire into his cities,
And it shall devour her palaces.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Ver. I. (Set) the trumpet to thy mouth. Jehovah commands the Prophet, as the herald of God, to proclaim with the trumpet of Israel the impending judgment: Like an eagle (it is coming) upon the house of Jehovah. The judgment will fall as swiftly as an eagle (comp. Deu 28:49). The house of Jehovah not=the Temple, but Israel, as the people among whom God dwells (should and would dwell), comp. Hos 9:8-15; Num 12:7; Jer 12:7; Zec 9:8.
Hos 8:2. Every one will cry: My God! Israel is in apposition to the subject contained in the verb [we know thee, we, Israel]. They rely upon the knowledge of God, which, as his people, they assuredly have. But it is a dead knowledge which can bring no deliverance.
Hos 8:3-4 show the position of Israel.
Hos 8:4. They have set up kings, but not by me. This refers to the self-authorized schism from the royal house of David. All the kings of Israel were not from God (that the government of the Ten Tribes was announced beforehand to Jeroboam by Ahijah the Prophet, 1Ki 11:30 ff., and that Jehu was anointed king and commissioned by Elisha, do not contradict this, for God makes use even of human sins to execute his decrees); and besides, according to Hos 7:7, the Prophet probably has in view the frequent violent dethronements and usurpations individually. in order that it, namely, the silver and gold, may be destroyed (comp. Hos 8:6). expresses the certainty of the result as if it had been designed. [Most have regarded Israel (collectively) as the subject of this verb, but, as Keil says, the same thing is more fully stated in Hos 8:6, and the connection of the clause is clear.M.]
Hos 8:5. He has rejected thy calf, Samaria. Samaria is mentioned as the capital instead of the whole kingdom. The Calf in Bethel is meant. [Henderson, with many Continental Translators, renders: thy calf is an abomination, the verb being taken intransitively. This is better than the translation of E. V., which is retained by Pusey in its natural sense, and by Horsley with a most astonishing application of the expression: Here God himself turns short upon Samaria or the Ten Tribes, and upbraids their corrupt worship by taking to Himself the title of Samarias calf. I whom on have so dishonored by setting up that contemptible idol as the symbol of my glorynow expressly disown you. The parallelism, as well as the whole drift of the passage seems to confirm the view adopted above.M.] How long will they be incapable of purity? incapable of walking purely before the Lord instead of polluting themselves with idols.
Hos 8:6. is the predicate; this also=the Calf. It originated from menfrom Israel through the makerand is therefore no God.
Hos 8:7. This result is the natural harvest of the evil sowing. The same image occurs in Hos 12:2 is an image of vain human efforts, from which ruin is developed, as naturally as the wind becomes a tempest. Hos 10:13; Job 6:8; Pro 22:8 are analogous, where , and are the seed. The sowing of the wind is first regarded as one which brings a harvest of disaster and ruin, but afterwards, as one which, like the wind (image of nothingness, from which nothing can come), deceives the sower, brings him in no harvest : a word-play. The latter is literally meal, flour: perhaps ears, as bearing the grains from which the flour is made. The following sentence declares that all their prospects were blasted. Israels efforts in every direction are fruitless. The judgment through Assyria stands in the back ground already.
Hos 8:8 is connected with Hos 8:7, but advances through the pret. . Israel is nowalreadyactually swallowed up. The sequel shows how far and by what means. Like a vessel, etc.: comp. Jer 22:28; Jer 48:38.
Hos 8:9. . Keil gives the meaning thus: While a wild ass, a silly animal, remains alone by itself, in order to maintain its independence, Ephraim seeks to make alliances with the nations of the world, that are unnatural and incompatible with its position. Yet such a comparison by antithesis is somewhat forced. It is much more natural to consider as the tertium comp. the burning lust of the wild ass, and to attach the sentence to the following, in which Ephraim is described as a paramour. Wnsche finds the tert. comp. in the stubborn and intractable nature of the wild ass: that Israel made a like exhibition in going to Assyria in spite of all prophetic admonition. [So Henderson and, to a certain extent, Pococke, Horsley, Newcome, and Pusey. There is no reason why the two ideas should not be united.M.] The meaning of the following member is clearly the same as in our phrase: courting ones friendship or love, and with this object giving him presents, flattering him, etc. So did Ephraim court the friendship of Assyria; but the expression is peculiarly pregnant. They presented love=they gave presents in order thereby to obtain love=they gave gifts for love.
Hos 8:10. But this is all in vain. : I will bring them together, namely, among the nations, i.e., will carry them together thither.The following words again are very difficult. According to the Masoretic punctation: , they began. Therefore R. Tanchum, and, among the modems, Eichhorn, Rosenmller, Hitzig, Keil: They began to become small from the burden of the king of the princes. Others, after the LXX. (Symm., Theodot, Syr., Vulg.), deduce the word from , and take it=to cease from, rest: they will rest a little from the burden of the king and princes: to be understood ironically=they will in captivity be deprived of their kings, and will have therefore to pay tribute to them no longer. Ewald and Meier read , also from : to wait, abstain from anything = that they may cease a little from, paying this shameful tribute, i.e., that they should wait a little before paying it. But was it Jehovahs purpose only to relieve Israel a short time from this tribute? Simson would therefore explain: In a little sorrow will seize them from the tribute of the king and the princes=in a little they will reap in sorrow the fruits of the tribute which they intend to pay as their security, and which makes them a prey to Assyria. So also Wnsche. [It will be noticed that E. V. takes the same view of the verb, but translates: they shall sorrow a little for the burden. Henderson agrees exactly: they shall suffer in a little (so the marginal reading in E. V.) by reason of the tribute. So also Cowles. Pusey thinks the meaning to be, that they shall sorrow but a little now on account of their burdens, in comparison with the greater trials of the captivity.M.] The various views taken of are already apparent. It is usually and probably correctly understood of the Assyrian king, in the sense: king of kings. [The native Assyrian word for prince, as lately made out from the inscriptions, is sarru, answering to the Hebrew sar, and Professor Green (Pres. Quarterly, July, 1872, p. 128) is inclined to suspect that it explains this expression: king of princes, which would seem not to be an arbitrary or merely poetic variation of the lordly title, king of kings, but to contain a designed allusion to the native Assyrian word. And a like allusion may be found in the words attributed to Sennacherib (Isa 10:8): Are not my princes altogether kings?M.) Therefore (regarding as=tribute) tribute to the king, or tribute which he imposes. [See Textual note.]
Hos 8:11. Increased the altars, while Israel should have only one altar.
Hos 8:12. Myriads of my Law, hyperbole, to express the almost innumerable individual commands of the Law. [See Textual note.]
Hos 8:13. , according to Frst from a root , to roast, formed by reduplication: a sacrifice burnt upon the altar, a holocaust. It is incomplete unless joined with , literally, a sacrifice of what is burnt, a burnt-offering. My burnt-offerings, i.e., those which should be burnt for Me, they slaughter for meat and devour. Therefore a complete profanation of the sacrifices. They were concerned only about the flesh. [The usual derivation from , to give, with the meaning: offerings, gives substantially the same sense: sacrificial offerings, and is, at least, as probable as the other.M.] They return to Egypt. Egypt is a type of the land of bondage (comp. Deu 28:68). Actual captivity in Egypt is scarcely meant.
Hos 8:14. Israel forgot his Creator. Comp. Deu 32:15. Temples, perhaps idol-temples. Keil: palaces. The assertion would then be similar to that concerning Judah. But the notion is that Israel builds idol-temples, while Judah does not do that, but by increasing its fortified cities upon which it relied, it showed no less that it was forgetting God. Cities, Palaces, therefore refer to Judah alone.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. In spite of all departure from God, the sinner will often not quite abandon religion, worship, and prayer. In his hypocrisy he often misuses the most beautiful words (Hos 8:2): Thou art my God, is otherwise the sum of all precious prayer. Hypocrites compile from the Scriptures a little book of compliments when they find some formulas which are extolled there. They place themselves behind these, while they are far from feeling their power (Rieger).
2. To practice idolatry, in the grosser or in the more refined sense, is to sow the wind, and the whirlwind follows sooner or later, as the harvest. When men forsake the living God, they build upon themselves, upon their own power and wisdom, and the more self-inflated they become, the more certain is their violent fall. All the more so that the foundations of a moral life have been undermined by forgetting the living God; more place is gradually given to vanity, thirst for pleasure, and evil desires, even against their own inclination. They are given up by the God to whom they would not give the glory. There must come a dreadful harvest of whirlwinds, though it may tarry long, though the results of the sowing may deceive and corrupt him long with their glitter and eclat. How often has this been proved in the history of individuals and nations! Compare the fate of the Second French Empire.
3. God prescribed to Israel myriads of commands. How strongly this expresses the care of God of his people, and the comprehensiveness of his revelation! Truly nothing is wanting to them; in no way can they complain that they have been meagrely supplied. All the greater is their guilt, in regarding these commands as something strange, as though they did not concern them at all, while they were issued solely for that people, and designed for their good. On the other side, the expression, myriads of my Law, is certainly most significant as regards the Old Testament stand-point. All these myriads were then received, but the Gospel was not yet given. The one gospel, the one message: the Word became Flesh, outweighs them all. The mercy of God in Christ assured by that message has a force quite different from all law. This mercy of the Gospel is also regarded as something strange, though men should regard it as most truly their own, i.e., as answering their most intimate and their inmost needs, which can be said of no law.
4. They shall return to Egypt. See on Hosea 9.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
Hos 8:2-3. How ready men are in time of affliction to depend upon their acquaintance with God and their service of Him, and upon their religious life, and to found on these a claim for help, and yet at other times they inquire after God so little! In affliction we hear nothing else than: my God.
Wrt. Summ: The cause of war and all its resulting evils, is, that men reject the good. And the good is God and his Word, with faith and obedience.
[Pococke: God is simply, supremely, wholly, universally good, and good to all, the Author and Fountain of all good, so that there is nothing simply good but God; nothing worthy of that title except in respect of its relation to Him who is good and doing good. Psa 119:68.M.]
Hos 8:5-6. Idolatry is mans foulest pollution.
[Matthew Henry: Deifying any creature makes way for the destruction of it.M.]
Hos 8:8. Pfaff. Bibelwerk: Sin has this bitter fruit also, that those who serve it come to be despised even by the world.
Hos 8:9-10. Trust in men or in earthly things more than in God is by Him counted idolatry. Trust in men must be most sorely repented of; for not only is the desired help most frequently not found, but those who trust in them are outwardly or inwardly still dependent upon them, and will be heavily oppressed.
Hos 8:11. It does not help to increase altars. It depends on the one to whom the sacrifice is made.
Hos 8:12. How richly has God remembered us with direction! What a rich treasure of the most varied instruction we have in his Word! But what will it profit us if we regard it as something strange, when God in it addresses Himself directly to us?The one Gospel is assuredly a greater gift of God than the myriads of the Law.
Hos 8:13. God is as strict a creditor toward impenitent sinners as He is a kind and indulgent one towards the penitent.
[Matt. Henry: A petition for leave to sin amounts to an imprecation of the curse for sin, and so it shall be answered.
Pusey: God seems to man to forget his sins, when He forbears to punish them; to remember them when He punishes.M.]
Hos 8:14. Incomprehensible that man should forget his Maker! but it is only too frequent. To have been created by God, and yet to build temples to idols; what a plain contradiction!
Footnotes:
[1][Hos 8:2.: my God. A distributive use of the singular pronoun. Each of the Israelites is represented as uttering the exclamation, and then all combined as making the protestation in common. Israel is in apposition to the subject of .M.]
[2][Hos 8:3.The rendering of Schmoller follows the reading which has nearly as much authority (forty-seven of De Rossis MSS., and two more by correction, eight of the most ancient and sixty-two other editions, the Syr., Vulg., and Targ.) as in the Textus Receptus, and is probably correct.M.]
[3][Hos 8:6., . . Its root does not exist in Heb. It is usually compared with Chald. to break in pieces. Henderson prefers to consider it= flames. Arab. , to kindle a fire.M.]
[4]Hos 8:9-10.. The Hiphil and the Kal have here the same meaning: to give presents.
[5]Hos 8:10.Simson and others translate: king and princes, namely, those of Israel, referring to the tribute which they pay. Here an asyndeton is assumed, or is read, after the ancient versions and several codices.
[6]Hos 8:12.. According to the Kethibh= with rejected=10000, a myriad. The Masorites, probably because they thought the expression too strong, would make the reading , multitudes, from , which however does not elsewhere occur in the plural.
[7]Hos 8:14., . Both of these refer merely to Judah. In the former the people are thought of and therefore the masc. suffix is employed; in the latter the country, and therefore the fern. [It is possible, also, that the latter refers to each of the cities regarded individually.M.]
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
CONTENTS
We have here another Sermon of the Prophet, or perhaps it is but a continuation of the former, for the subject is the same. The Lord expostulates with his people, and threatens to correct them.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
The Chapter opens with a command to someone, and it should seem most likely to be to the Prophet, to cry aloud, in a way of reproof and expostulation. The expression is not unlike that command to Isa 58:1 . And if we spiritualize the chapter, and for a moment lose sight of Israel of old, and read in what is here said, the Lord speaking to his Israel now; the word, under his Almighty teaching, will be very profitable. For Reader! mark verse by verse what the Lord here saith, and see if there be not too great a correspondence in God’s church, and among God’s people, to what Israel is here charged with. Have not we transgressed the Covenant? and trespassed against God’s law? And do we not, in the midst of all this, say, as Israel did; My God, we know thee? How often have we set up idols in our hearts, as the Kings and Princes of Israel did? How often have we been seeking alliance with creature strength, and creature confidences; setting up a righteousness of our own, instead of living wholly upon Jesus and his righteousness? Reader! do you not feel the full force of the Apostle’s expostulation; what then? are we better than they? No, in no wise, for we have before proved both. Jews and Gentiles that they are all under sin. Rom 3:9 . Reader! it is very humbling this, but it is thus the Lord teacheth us to profit, when we read scripture with an eye to our own state in the Church’s history.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Threatened Destruction
Hos 8:1-4
“Set the trumpet to thy mouth. He shall come as an eagle against the house of the Lord, because they have transgressed my covenant, and trespassed against my law” ( Hos 8:1 ).
The Lord pursues the evildoers, not in a spirit of vengeance, but in a spirit of expostulation, to be followed by such penalty as the evil deeds have provoked and deserved. When he commands the prophet to set the trumpet to his mouth he regards the prophet in the capacity of a watchman, whose function it was to notify the coming of God amongst the children of men in some form of judgment. Isaiah was commanded in similar terms “Cry aloud, spare not; lift up thy voice like a trumpet.” The trumpet called men to war, or alarmed them in periods of danger, or summoned them to concerted action on signal occasions. We are not to look upon the office of watchman as extinct. The term may indeed be applied to all trustworthy and vigilant leaders of society; we look to them to tell us the signs of the times, and to give us the signal either for flight or battle. When ministers of religion keep silent in the presence of social dangers or public calamities, they are not to be flattered as if they were exercising a wise prudence; they are to be condemned as unfaithful watchmen who consult their own interests rather than seek to defend and consolidate the welfare of the community. There is a great temptation to be silent in the presence of the wicked, for oftentimes the wealth of this world is in the hands of ungodly men, or it lies in their power to inflict great injury upon those who oppose their malignant will. It is under such circumstances that ministers of Christ are to show their intelligence, their fortitude, and their self-control. On the other hand, it must be borne in mind that neither political nor religious ministers are to unduly excite themselves about trivial subjects, or expend their strength in the consummation of frivolous purposes. There is a sad lack of proportion in any method or economy which expends energy upon objects unworthy of much consideration.
In the case before us it is the house of God that is in peril Strictly speaking, “the house of the Lord” relates to the Temple, because in that place the Lord had been pleased to record his name. We find it pointed out, however, with clearness that the expression “the house of the Lord” is not confined to what we understand by the word temple or sanctuary: for example, in Jer 12:7 the Lord says, “I have forsaken mine house, I have left mine heritage; I have given the dearly beloved of my soul into the hand of her enemies;” and in Jer 11:15 we read, What hath my beloved to do in mine house, seeing she hath wrought lewdness with many?” In these instances by the “house” of the Lord we are to understand the kingdom of Judah and Jerusalem. The title “God’s house” should be preserved through all generations as peculiarly distinctive of the sanctuary; it is a larger and older title than the term “temple.” In describing all his own people the Lord says, “My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all mine house”; by “all mine house” we are to understand the whole Church of God, the whole Israel of the Most High. Even when the ten tribes had no longer any portion in strictly temple worship, when, indeed, they had fallen into a base apostasy, God did not regard them as absolutely detached from his house, for he says, “For the wickedness of their doings I will drive them out of mine house.”
The image by which the prophet represents the oncoming vengeance of God is most energetic and vivid “as an eagle against the house of the Lord.” Primarily the eagle typifies the destructive irruption of Shalmaneser, who came down furiously; and bore away in mocking triumph the ten tribes. The “eagle” includes also Nebuchadnezzar, and, according to some interpreters, it includes the Roman eagle, the ensign of Roman arms. Whatever be the local and particular references as to the eagle, the great principle remains from age to age that God comes to judgment in various forms, always definitely, and, as we shall see, always intelligibly, not only inflicting vengeance as a sovereign whose covenants have been outraged, but condescending to explain the reasons upon which his most destructive judgments are based. Thus we read, “Because they have transgressed my covenant, and trespassed against my law”: the covenant had been broken by idolatry, and the law had been violated by social sins. It is needful to mark this distinction with great particularity, because it shows the breadth of the divine commandment. God is not speaking about a merely metaphysical law a law which can only be interpreted by the greatest minds, and put into operation on the sublimest occasions of life; he is speaking about a law which had indeed its lofty religious aspects, but which had also its social, practical, tender phases, in whose preservation every man, woman, and child in the kingdom ought to be interested.
It is important also to remember that God’s law is always man’s defence. We are not dealing with an Oriental prince who has made laws for his own preservation, but with a divine Father who never makes a law that has not a distinctly human aspect, and that is not enriched with a distinct redemptive purpose towards the human family. We might suppose that sin was a metaphysical mystery; something, indeed, for which the sinner himself was hardly responsible, because he did not know either the beginning or the end of his action. God, however, has made it clear that sin is always a crime; that is to say, not only a metaphysical offence, but a practical outrage, or a practical loss. Whoever sins against God sins against his own soul, and not only sins against his soul considered as a metaphysical entity, but sins against himself as a person who is environed and governed by beneficent laws. Once let those laws be violated, and the man does not only suffer metaphysically, or go down in some practical quantity or quality, but he actually suffers in body and estate, sometimes apparently, and always really.
“Israel shall cry unto me, My God, we know thee” ( Hos 8:2 ).
The Hebrew has been put thus: To me shall they cry, We know thee; we, Israel, thy people, know thee. A parallel passage may be found in the gospel of Matthew, “Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?” Israel always claimed to know God, and they were always rebuked for not really knowing him, but knowing him only in name or pretence or worthless vision. Our Lord was encountered by the declaration on the part of the Jews, “He is our God”; but instead of accepting that testimony Jesus Christ appealed to the moral condition and recollection of the pretenders “It is my Father that honoureth me; of whom ye say, that he is your God. Ye have not known him:” here we have a common sophism exposed and denounced; here is profession of the most positive and blatant kind condemned as an expression of ignorance, and of something worse than mere intellectual ignorance. Israel professed that God had been accepted as the God of the individual and the nation, and yet Jesus Christ charges Israel with not knowing the God professedly so accepted. The charge applies to all religious profession. Do we understand the meaning of our own profession? Do we comprehend the full purpose of all the religious terms we use? When we recite a creed do we really pronounce a vital faith? This discrepancy between a set of formal words and the real meaning of the heart is the region in which temptation operates with deadliest effect. Everywhere Jesus Christ calls for reality: he will not have any of his people say more than they really believe. Even if part of a faith is spoken with energy, and the other part is spoken with some doubtfulness of tone, he would rather accept such a confession because of its reality, than he would receive a confession fluently uttered that did not rise from the innermost convictions of the heart. Always there has been a difficulty as between the utterance of the lip and the meaning of the soul. For example, in Isaiah we read, “This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.” This process of hypocrisy still goes on. The creed is read in as loud a voice as ever, but there is no soul in the tone of the reader. God will not be honoured by dead letters, he will not receive literary worship; he looks for the spiritual worshipper, and not for the mechanical form. Here is a test to which every soul may subject itself, here, indeed, is the throne of judgment before which every man may try the reality of his own religious beliefs and utterances.
“Israel hath cast off the thing that is good: the enemy shall pursue him” ( Hos 8:3 ).
The word “cast off” does not imply a merely mechanical or even intellectual action; that term is deeply tinged with moral significance, literally meaning, “to cast off with abhorrence.” Israel not only cast off God, but abhorred all things good, him who is good, and the thing which is good; for the word here employed includes both the person and the object. When a man rejects God he rejects all things good. He may not know it, he may even deny it; but he must be brought by consideration or by experience to know that to cast off the Fountain is to cast away the stream; to shut out the sun is to shut out the light; to forsake God is to accept the sovereignty of evil and darkness. What is the consequence of such off-casting? The consequence is stated in plain terms “the enemy shall pursue him.” The local reference is to the Assyrian, but the general reference is to the spirit of the law, the spirit that has been turned into an enemy by evil behaviour. “The way of transgressors is hard.” “Though hand join in hand, the wicked shall not be unpunished.” “Be sure your sin will find you out.” “Whoso breaketh an hedge, a serpent shall bite him.” The Bible is full of the revelation of this doctrine. We are not to consider the doctrine as one of mere retaliation, but as one of natural and inevitable consequence. The punishment which follows sin is a proof of the goodness of the law which would guard men against it. Fearful are the consequences which flow from sin, even in the sense of deprivation. Were there no definite or positive punishment inflicted on account of sin, yet the deprivation of blessing which follows the downfall of the soul would itself be overwhelming. No longer does the soul see light, or hear music, or respond to love, or enter into sympathy with the spirit of progress; doors are shut, lights are extinguished, voices are silent; all that made life a joy and a triumph, a victory and a hope, is taken away, and the sinning soul sits down in darkness, in sackcloth and ashes, mourning an irreparable, an infinite loss.
“They have set up kings, but not by me: they have made princes, and I knew it not: of their silver and their gold have they made them idols, that they may be cut off” ( Hos 8:4 ).
The whole history of Israel is a history of protest against man-made kings. God declared to Jeroboam by the mouth of Ahijah the prophet that he would rend the kingdom out of the hands of Solomon, and give ten tribes to Jeroboam, and would take him, and he should reign according to all that his soul desired, and he should be king over Israel. After the ten tribes had made Jeroboam king, another prophet said to Rehoboam and the two tribes, “Ye shall not go up, nor fight against your brethren the children of Israel; return every man to his house, for this thing is from me.” God has thus overruled human institutions, and made them contribute to the extension and authority of his own kingdom. The desire for kings was not a legitimate desire, yet it was granted, and notwithstanding all the evils which have accrued God has used the regal institution for beneficent purposes.
God was never consulted as to the rules of the kingdom constituted by the ten tribes. The ten tribes were indeed atheistic; as for Jeroboam, he no sooner received the kingdom than he set up a rebellion against God. This contest between the human and the divine is not confined to Judah or Israel, or to any section of the tribes: we read in the Acts of the Apostles, “Against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together, for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done.” A marvellous conjunction of forces this, and yet not without a practical aspect, which our own experience enables us to appreciate. We are not to consider that Deicide was determined upon by the counsel of God, but that it was declared as an outcome or revelation of the human heart. God took no pleasure in the kings of Israel, for they were not from him. With the exception of Jehu and his house, all the kings of Israel may be described as atheistic. The kingdom of Israel lasted 223 years, eighteen kings reigned over it, representing ten different families, and it is on record that no family came to a close except by a violent death. Locally, this is all past and gone, but spiritually the whole action is alive to-day. “The Lord knoweth the way of the righteous.” “If any man love God, the same is known of him.” “Then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
VIII
THE BOOK OF HOSEA PART 2
Hos 4:1-14:9
What has previously been presented in figure and symbol in the first section of the book is now plainly and literally stated. Jehovah’s controversy with Israel is set forth in Hos 4:1-5 . Someone has called this “The Lord’s Lawsuit” in which he brings grave charges against Israel for sins of omission followed by sins of commission. The sins of omission which led to the sins of commission are that there were no truth, no goodness, and no knowledge of God in the land. These omissions led to the gravest sins of commission, viz: profanity, covenant-breaking, murder, stealing, and adultery. The evidence in this case was so strong that there was no plea of “not guilty” entered, and Jehovah proceeded at once, after making the indictment, to announce the sentence: Destruction!
This verdict of destruction was for the lack of knowledge, which emphasizes the responsibility of the opportunity to know. They had rejected knowledge and had forgotten the law of Jehovah, and as the priests were the religious leaders and instructors of the people, the sentence is heavy against them, but “like people, like priest” shows the equality of the responsibility and the judgment. There is no excuse for either. He who seeks to know the agenda, God will reveal the credenda. The sentence is again stated, thus: Rejection, forgetting her children, shame, requite them their doings, hunger and harlotry. Such a sentence hung over them like a deadly pall.
In Hos 4:11-14 whoredom and wine are named together, not by accident but because they are companion evils, which is the universal testimony of those who practice either. Here they are said to take away the understanding, or as the Hebrew puts it, the heart. Both are literally true. That the understanding is marred and blighted by these evils is evidenced in the case of the thousands who have rendered themselves unfit for service anywhere by wasting their strength with wine and harlots. That the heart, the seat of affections, is destroyed by these evils witness the thousands of divorce cases in our courts today. By such a course the very vitals of man are burnt out and he then becomes the prey to every other evil in the catalogue. Let the youth of our country heed the warning of the prophet. Here Israel, engrossed with these sins, is pictured as going deeper and deeper in sin and degradation until they pass beyond the power of description. Notice that the Lord here holds the men responsible and pronounces a mighty invective against the modern double standard of morals. In God’s sight the transgressor is the guilty party, whether man or woman.
Though Israel has played the harlot, Judah is warned in Hos 4:15-19 that she may not follow the example of Israel. The places of danger are pointed out and the example of Israel is used to enforce the warning. Israel is stubborn; Ephraim is joined to his idols; let him alone. Israel is wrapped in the winds of destruc-tion and shall soon be put to shame, therefore, take heed, Judah.
There are several notable things in the address of Hos 5:1-7 : First, the whole people priests, Israel, and the royal house was involved in the judgment because each one was responsible for the existing conditions, their great centers of revolt against Jehovah being pointed out as Mizpeh, east of the Jordan; and Tabor, west of the Jordan. Second, the fact that Jehovah himself was the rebuker of them. God is the one undisputable judge and he will judge and he will judge them all. Though the mills of God grind slowly, Yet they grind exceeding small; Though with patience He stands waiting, With exactness grinds He all,
Third, God’s omniscience: “I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hid from me.” So he knows us and there is nothing hid from him. Fourth, men are hindered from turning to God by their gins. Fifth, positive instruction awaits the sinner (Hos 5:5 ). Sixth, sacrifices and seeking are too late after doom is pronounced. Repentance must come within the space allotted for it; otherwise, it is too late.
The cornet and trumpet in Hos 5:8-15 signifies the alarm in view of the approaching enemy. In the preceding paragraph the prophet signified their certain destruction and now he indicates that it is at hand, again assigning the reason, that Judah had become as bold as those who remove the landmarks, and Ephraim was content to walk after man’s commandments. Then he shows by the figure of the moth and the woodworm that he is slowly consuming both Israel and Judah, but they were applying to other powers for help to hold out and that the time would come when he, like the lion, would make quick work of his judgments upon Israel and Judah; that they will not seek him till their affliction comes.
Paragraph Hos 6:1-3 is the exhortation of the Israelites to one another at the time of their affliction mentioned in the last verse of the preceding chapter and should be introduced by the word, “saying,” as indicated in the margin of Hos 5:15 . The expressions, “He hath torn” and “he hath smitten,” evidently refer to the preceding verses which describe Jehovah’s dealing with Israel and Judah as a lion. This exhortation represents them after their affliction, saying to one another, “Come, and let us return unto Jehovah,” etc. The “two days” and the “third day” are expressions representing short periods, not literal or typical days. They are then represented as pursuing knowledge which is the opposite to their present condition in their lack of knowledge. Now they are perishing for the lack of knowledge but then they will flourish as land flourishes in the time of the latter rain. There is a primary fulfilment of this prophecy in the return after the captivity but the larger fulfilment will be at their final return and conversion at which commences the revival destined to sweep the world into the kingdom of God. As Peter says, it will be “the times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord” (Act 3:19 ).
A paraphrase of Hos 6:4-11 shows its interpretation and application, thus: “O Ephraim, O Judah, I am perplexed as to what remedy next to apply to you; your goodness is so shallow and transitory that my judgments have to be repeated from time to time. I desire goodness, i.e., works of charity, the right attitude of life, and the proper condition of the heart, rather than sacrifice. But instead of this you have, like Adam in the garden of Eden, transgressed my covenant and have dealt treacherously against me, as in the case of the Gileadites and the case of the murderous priests in the way to Shechem, and oh, the horribleness of your crimes! and, O Judah, there is a harvest for you, too.”
In the charges against Israel in Hos 7:1-16 the prophet gives the true state of affairs, viz: that the divine desire to heal was frustrated by the discovery of pollution, and by their persistent ignoring of God; that the pollution of the nation was manifest in the king, the princes, and the judges; that Ephraim was mixing among the people and had widespread influence, over the ten tribes, yet he was as a cake not turned; that he was an utter failure, being developed on one side, and on the other destroyed by burning; that he was unconscious of his wasting strength and ignored the plain testimony of the Pride of Israel; that as a silly dove, he was indicating fear and cowardice. Then the prophet concludes the statement of the case by a declaration of the utter folly of the people whom God was scourging toward redemption, to which they responded by howling, assembling, and rebelling.
Now we take up Hos 8 . From the statement of the case the prophet turned, in Hos 8:1-14 , to the pronouncement of judgment by the figure of the trumpet lifted to the mouth, uttering five blasts, in each of which the sin of the people was set forth as revealing the reason for judgment. The first blast declared the coming of judgment under the figure of an eagle, because of transgression and trespass. The second blast emphasized Israel’s sin of rebellion, in that they had set up kings and princes without authority of Jehovah. The third dealt with Israel’s idolatry, announcing that Jehovah had cast off the calf of Samaria. The fourth denounced Israel’s alliances and declared that her hire among the nations had issued in her diminishing. The fifth drew attention to the altars of sin and announced the coming judgment.
These judgments in detail are given in Hos 9 . Its first note was that of the death of joy. Israel could not find her joy like other peoples. Having known Jehovah, everything to which she turned in turning from him, failed to satisfy. How true is this of the individual backslider! The unsatisfied heart is constantly crying out, Where is the blessedness I knew, When first I saw the Lord? Where is the soul-refreshing view Of Jesus and his word?
The second note was that of actual exile to which she must pass: back to the slavery of Egypt and Assyria and away from the offerings and feasts of the Lord. The third was that of the cessation of prophecy. The means of testing themselves would be corrupted. The fourth declared the retributive justice of fornication. The prophet traced the growth of this pollution from its beginning at Baal-peor, and clearly set forth the inevitable deterioration of the impure people. The fifth and last was that of the final casting out of the people by God so that they should become wanderers among the nations.
In Hos 10 we have the prophet’s recapitulation and appeal. This closes the section. The whole case is stated under the figure of the vine. Israel was a vine of God’s planting which had turned its fruitfulness to evil account and was therefore doomed to his judgment. The result of this judgment would be the lament of the people that they had no king who was able to deliver them, and chastisement would inevitably follow. The last paragraph is an earnest and passionate appeal to return to loyalty.
Some things in Hos 10 need special explanation: First, note the expression here, “They will say to the mountains, Cover us; and to the hills, Fall on us.” This furnishes the analogue for the final destruction of the world and the judgment as given in Luk 23:30 and Rev 6:16 . Here the expression is used to indicate the horrors of the capture and destruction of the kingdom of Israel, the sufferings and distress of which are a foreshadowing of the great tribulation at the end of the world.
Second, the reference to Gibeah in Hos 10:9 needs a little explanation. This sin of Gibeah is the sin of the shameful outrage which with its consequences is recorded in Judges 19-20. That sin became proverbial, overtopping, as it did, all the ordinary iniquities, by its shameless atrocity and heinousness. By a long-continued course of sin, even from ancient days, Ephraim had been preparing for a fearful doom.
The third reference is to Shalman who destroyed Betharbel (Hos 10:14 ). There are several theories about this incident. Some think that “Shalman” is a short form of “Shalmaneser,” that Shalmaneser IV, who in the invasion which is mentioned (2Ki 17:3 ) fought a battle in the valley of Jezreel, in which he broke the power of Samaria in fulfilment of Hos 1:5 and about the same time stormed the neighboring town of Arbela, but who this “Shalman” was and what place was “Betharbel” are only matters of uncertain conjecture. All that is positively known is that the sack of Betharbel had made upon the minds of the Israelites an impression similar to that which in the seventeenth century was made far and wide by the sack of Madgeburg.
According to our brief outline the title of section Hos 11:1-14:8 is “Pollution and Pity.” This third cycle of the prophecy sets forth the pity which Jehovah has for his sinning people, and contains a declaration of Jehovah’s attitude toward Israel notwithstanding her sin. Chapters 11-13 are for the most part the speech of Jehovah himself. He sums up, and in so doing declares his sense of the awfulness of their sin, pronouncing his righteous judgment thereupon. Yet throughout the movement the dominant notes are those of pity and love, and the ultimate victory of that love over sin, and consequently over judgment. Three times in the course of this great message of Jehovah to his people (Hos 11:1-13:16 ), the prophet interpolates words of his own.
This message of Jehovah falls into three clearly marked elements which deal: (1) with the present in the light of past love (Hos 11:1-11 ); (2) with the present in the light of present love (Hos 12:7-11 ) ; (3) with the present in the light of future love (Hos 13:4-14 ).
The prophet’s interpolations set forth the history of Israel indicating their relation to Jehovah, and pronounce judgment. They form a remarkable obligate accompaniment, in a minor key, to the majestic love song of Jehovah, and constitute a contrasting introduction to the final message of the prophet. The first of them reveals the prophet’s sense of Jehovah’s controversy with Judah, his just dealings with Jacob, and, reminiscent of Jacob’s history, he makes a deduction and an appeal (Hos 11:12-13:6 ). The second traces the progress of Israel to death (Hos 12:12-13:3 ). The third declares their doom (Hos 13:15-16 ).
Then in general, Jehovah’s message in Hos 11:1-11 is as follows:
In this first movement, Jehovah reminded the people of his past love for them in words full of tenderness, setting out their present condition in its light, and crying, “How shall I give thee up?” Which inquiry was answered by the determined declaration of the ultimate triumph of love, and the restoration of the people.
There are two incidents of Israel’s history cited in this first part of Jehovah’s message. The first incident cited is the calling of Israel out of Egypt, which is quoted in Mat 2:15 and applied to our Lord Jesus Christ as a fulfilment of this prophecy. Hosea clearly refers to the calling of Israel out of Egypt, the nation being elsewhere spoken of as God’s son (Exo 4:22 ; Jer 3:9 ). But there is evident typical relation between Israel and the Messiah.
As Israel in the childhood of the nation was called out of Egypt, so Jesus. We may even find resemblance in minute details; his temptation of forty days in the desert, resembles Israel’s temptation of forty years in the desert, which itself corresponded to the forty days spent by the spies (Num 14:34 ). Thus we see how Hosea’s historical statement concerning Israel may have been also a prediction concerning the Messiah, as the Evangelist declares it was. It is not necessary to suppose that this was present to the prophet’s consciousness. Exalted by inspiration, a prophet may well have said things having deeper meanings than he was distinctly aware of, and which only a later inspiration, coming when the occasion arose, could fully unfold BROADUS on Mat 2:15 . The second incident in the history of God’s people cited is the destruction of Adman, Zeboim, Sodom, and Gomorrah, all of which are mentioned in Deu 29:23 as destroyed by Jehovah for their wickedness. The warning is a powerful one to Ephraim, or Israel, who are here threatened with destruction.
The prophet’s message in his first interpolation (Hos 11:12-12:6 ) is a lesson from the history of Jacob showing Israel’s relation to him. The prophet here goes back to the earliest history of Jacob showing God’s dealing with him from his conception to his settlement at Bethel, where God gave him the promise of a multitude of descendants. This bit of history includes the struggle between him and Esau before birth, and his wrestling with the angel.
In Hos 12:7-11 Jehovah sets out their present sin in the light of his present love. The sin of Ephraim and its pride and impertinence are distinctly stated and yet over all, love triumphs. Jehovah declared himself to be the God who delivered them from Egypt, and who would be true to the message of the prophets, to the visions of the seers and to the similitudes of the ministry of the prophets. There is an allusion in verse 7 to Jacob’s deception of Isaac, which characteristic seems to have been handed down to his posterity, as here indicated.
In the prophets second interpolation (Hos 12:12-13:3 ) he traces the progress of Israel to death, beginning at the flight to the field of Aram, through the exodus from Egypt and the preservation to the present, in which Ephraim was exalted in Israel, offended in Baal and died. Their certain doom is here announced.
Then follows Jehovah’s message in Hos 13:4-14 in which he sets forth the present condition of Israel in the light of his future love. Sin abounds, and therefore judgment is absolutely unavoidable. Nevertheless, the mighty strength of love must overcome at last.
There are several things in the passage worthy of special note. First, the allusions here to Jehovah’s dealings with them from Egypt to their destination in Canaan, their exaltation and his destruction of them. Second, the allusion to their history under kings, beginning with Saul, whom he gave them in his anger and whom he took away in his wrath. The statement may apply to the long line of kings of the Northern Kingdom, but it fits the case of Saul more especially and throws light on the problem of Saul’s mission as king of Israel. Third, the promise of their restoration under the figure of a resurrection (Hos 13:14 ), which is quoted and applied to the final resurrection by Paul (1Co 15:55 ) and which shows the typical import of this passage. It is like a flash of light in the darkest hour of despair.
Dr. Pusey on this passage has well said:
God by his prophets mingles promises of mercy in the midst of his threats of punishment. His mercy overflows the bounds of the occasion upon which he makes it known. He had sentenced Ephraim to temporal destruction. This was unchangeable. He points to that which turns all temporal loss into gain, that eternal redemption. The words are the fullest which could have been chosen. The word rendered “ransom” signifies rescued them by the payment of a price; the word rendered “redeem” relates to one who, as the nearest of kin, had the right to acquire anything as his own by paying the price. Both words in their exactest sense, describe what Jesus did, buying us with a price . . . and becoming our near kinsman by his incarnation. . . . The words refuse to be tied down to temporal deliverance. A little longer continuance in Canaan is not a redemption from the power of the grave; nor was Ephraim so delivered.
The expression, “repentance shall be hid from mine eyes,” means that God will never turn from his purpose to be merciful to Israel.
In the prophet’s last interpolation (Hos 13:15-16 ) he goes back to the death sentence showing the complete destruction of Ephraim and Samaria by the Eastern power, Assyria. The reference to Ephraim’s fruitfulness goes back to the promise of Jacob to Joseph, “He shall be a fruitful bough,” though Ephraim had turned this fruitfulness to evil and thus is brought to desolation.
Hos 14 gives us the final call of the prophet with the promise of Jehovah. The call was to the people to return because they had fallen by iniquity. It suggests the method of returning, as being that of bringing words of penitence, and forsaking all false gods. To this Jehovah answered in a message full of hope for the people, declaring that he would restore, renew, and ultimately reinstate them. There is no question but that this final word of prophecy has a reference to the return from the exile but that this return does not exhaust the meaning of this prophecy is also very evident. The larger fulfilment is to be spiritual and finds its expression in the final conversion of the Jews as voiced by Peter: “Repent ye therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, that so there may come seasons of refreshing from the presence of the Lord” (Act 3:19 ).
The book closes with a brief epilogue, which demands attention to all the prophet has written, whether for warning, or reproof, or correction in righteousness, or encouragement to piety and virtue. Like the dictates of the Word, so the dispensations of his providence are to some the savor of life, to others the savor of death. So it is added that, while the righteous walk therein, in them the wicked stumble.
In closing this chapter I will say that Hosea occupies a period of transition in developing the messianic idea from the earlier prophets to Micah and Isaiah, in whose writings abounds the messianic element:
(1) Hosea, like Amos, predicts the destruction of the kingdom of Israel, but he looks beyond it to a brighter day, when the children of Israel will be as the sand of the sea in number, will be accepted of Jehovah as sons and daughters, and Judah and Israel will have one head, Christ (Hos 1:10-2:1 , et al).
(2) Hosea’s experience with an unfaithful wife is an object lesson of God’s forgiveness of Israel. Their spiritual adultery must lead them into exile but Jehovah will betroth Israel to himself in righteousness, and take the Gentiles into the same covenant (Hos 2:2-3:5 ; Rom 9:25-26 ).
(3) Hos 11:1 was fulfilled in the return of Joseph and Mary from Egypt with the babe, Jesus (Mat 2:15 ). So Jesus the antitype of Adam, Israel, and David.
(4) Hos 11:8-11 expresses Jehovah’s promise to restore Israel.
(5) Hos 13:14 is a messianic promise foreshadowing the resurrection.
(6) Hos 14:1-8 is a messianic promise of Israel’s final repentance, God’s reinstatement of them and their abundant blessings in the millennium.
I quote Dr. Sampey: In general, the earlier prophets describe clearly a terrible captivity of Jehovah’s people, to be followed by a return to their own land, where they were to enjoy the divine blessing. The everlasting love and compassion of Jehovah are repeatedly described, and the future enlargement of Israel is clearly set forth. The person of Messiah, however, is not distinctly brought before the reader. Isaiah and Micah will have much to say of the character and work of the Messaih Himself
QUESTIONS
1. What the character of this division, as contrasted with the first three chapters of Hosea?
2. What Jehovah’s controversy with Israel as set forth in Hos 4:1-5 ?
3. Why the verdict of destruction, as set forth in Hos 4:6-10 ?
4. What two practices are named together in Hos 4:11-14 , and what their effect upon the mind of man?
5. What warning to Judah in Hos 4:15-19 ?
6. What the notable things in the address of Hos 5:1-7 ?
7. What the significance and the application of the cornet and trumpet in Hos 5:8-15 ?
8. What the interpretation and application of Hos 6:1-3 ?
9. Paraphrase Hos 6:4-11 so as to show its interpretation and application.
10. What the charges against Israel in Hos 7:1-16 ?
11. How does the prophet pronounce judgment and what the significance in each case (Hos 8:1-14 )?
12. Describe these judgments in detail as given in Hos 9 .
13. State briefly the prophet’s recapitulation and appeal (Hos 10:1-15 ).
14. What things in Hos 10 need special explanation, and what the explanation in each case?
15. According to our brief outline what the title of section Hos 11:1-14:8 , and what in general, are its contents?
16. What the general features of the message of Jehovah?
17. What the general features of the prophet’s interpolations?
18. What, in general, is Jehovah’s message in Hos 11:1-11 ?
19. What two incidents of Israel’s history cited in this first part of Jehovah’s message, and what their interpretation and application?
20. What the prophet’s message in his first interpolation (Hos 11:12-12:6 )?
21. What, in general, Jehovah’s message in Hos 12:7-11 ?
22. What allusion to an incident in the life of Jacob in this passage?
23. What the substance of the prophet’s second interpolation (Hos 12:12-13:3 )?
24. What, in general, Jehovah’s message in Hos 13:4-14 ?
25. What things in the passage worthy of special note?
26. What the prophet’s message in his last interpolation (Hos 13:15-16 )?
27. What the contents of Hos 14 ?
28. Give a summary of the messianic predictions in the book of Hosea.
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
Hos 8:1 [Set] the trumpet to thy mouth. [He shall come] as an eagle against the house of the LORD, because they have transgressed my covenant, and trespassed against my law.
Ver. 1. Set the trumpet to thy mouth ] Heb. The trumpet to thy palate. A hasty expression, an abrupt and imperfect speech, common with such as are moved with passions, of anger, grief, or fear, as Hos 5:8 , “after thee, O Benjamin.” God, though not subject to such perturbations, Jas 1:17 , yet here aud elsewhere utters himself in this sort; to set forth the nearness of the people’s danger by the enemies’ approach; and the necessity of their return to him by true repentance, for the diversion of his displeasure. “Break off thy sins by righteousness,” saith the prophet to Nebuchadnezzar; be abrupt in the work, cut the cart ropes of vanity, if “it may be a lengthening of the tranquillity,” Dan 4:27 . Take the bark from the tree, and the sap can never find the way to the boughs; get sin remitted, and punishment shall be removed. In this sermon of the prophet (which is much sharper than the former, and may seem to be one of the last, because God is so absolute in threatening, as if he meant to be resolute in punishing) there is (as one saith) peccatorum et poenarum , a heaping together of sins and of punishments of many sorts; and the prophet commanded to give sudden warning of the enemy at hand, which is elegantly set forth by a military hypotyposis, or lively representation; as if it were now doing. “The trumpet to thy mouth,” that is, set up thy note, and proclaim with a loud and clear voice, as Isa 58:1 , cry in the throat (so the Chaldee hath it here), spare not, that none may say he was not warned; “lift up thy voice like a trumpet,” that all may hear and fear, Amo 3:6 , as people use to do when an alarm is sounded, or the bells are rung backward. See Hos 5:8 . There they had been before alarmed, here reminded in brief; for the prophet is, as it were, monosyllabus, as one in haste; he uttereth amputatas sententias et verba ante expectatum cadentia, as Seneca somewhere hath it, broken sentences, concise but pithy periods.
He shall come as an eagle against the house of the Lord
Against the house of the Lord
Because they have transgressed my covenant, and trespassed
They trespassed against his law
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Hos 8:1-7
1Put the trumpet to your lips!
Like an eagle the enemy comes against the house of the LORD,
Because they have transgressed My covenant
And rebelled against My law.
2They cry out to Me,
My God, we of Israel know You!
3Israel has rejected the good;
The enemy will pursue him.
4They have set up kings, but not by Me;
They have appointed princes, but I did not know it.
With their silver and gold they have made idols for themselves,
That they might be cut off.
5He has rejected your calf, O Samaria, saying,
My anger burns against them!
How long will they be incapable of innocence?
6For from Israel is even this!
A craftsman made it, so it is not God;
Surely the calf of Samaria will be broken to pieces.
7For they sow the wind
And they reap the whirlwind.
The standing grain has no heads;
It yields no grain.
Should it yield, strangers would swallow it up.
Hos 8:1 the trumpet This refers to the shophar or ram’s horn (BDB 1051), which was used for religious purposes and to communicate information to military troops. See note at Hos 5:8. God is calling Assyria to punish Israel (cf. Hos 8:3 b; Deu 28:49; Isa 10:5).
an eagle This refers to a vulture (BDB 676). The symbolism is clear, an unclean bird of prey, which has been sent by God, symbolizing the invading Assyrian army (Targums) with its corresponding death and destruction.
the house of the LORD This refers to the people of God, here the northern tribes, Israel (cf. Hos 9:3-4; Hos 9:15, NIV). Although the NET Bible translates it as the temple of the LORD.
transgressed My covenant This means gone beyond the boundary (BDB 716, KB 778, Qal PERFECT, cf. Hos 6:7; Deu 17:2; Jos 7:11; Jos 7:15; Jdg 2:20; 2Ki 18:12; Jer 34:18).
Hosea uses the concept of covenant several times (cf. Hos 2:18; Hos 6:7; Hos 8:1). His unique message from God transforms sin from violation of a law to violation of love (i.e., marriage covenant).
rebelled against My law This means reject rightful authority (BDB 833, KB 981, Qal PERFECT). The two phrases (transgressed and rebelled) in this verse are in a Hebrew parallel relationship (both Qal PERFECTS, as are My covenant and My law).
The NIDOTTE, vol. 4, p. 712, offers an interesting list of Israel’s sins against YHWH:
1. go after my lovers, Hos 2:5; Hos 2:13
2. forgot Me, Hos 2:13; Hos 4:6; Hos 8:14; Hos 13:6
3. is stubborn, Hos 4:16; Hos 9:15
4. dealt treacherously against the Lord, Hos 5:7; Hos 6:7
5. deal falsely, Hos 7:1; Hos 10:2
6. lie, Hos 7:3; Hos 10:13; Hos 11:12
7. strayed from Me, Hos 7:13
8. have rebelled against Me, Hos 7:13; Hos 8:1
9. speak lies against Me, Hos 7:13
10. do not cry to Me from their heart, Hos 7:14
11. turn away from Me, Hos 7:14
12. transgressed my covenant, Hos 8:1
13. rebelled against my law, Hos 8:1
Hos 8:2 They cry out to Me,
My God, we of Israel know You’ They knew God as far as ritual and cultic liturgy (i.e., cry out BDB 277; KB 277, Qal IMPERFECT), but they did not know (BDB 393, KB 390, Qal PERFECT) Him in personal relationship and faith. What a tragedy to have the form of godliness but not to know God (cf. Hos 7:14; Isa 29:13; Mat 7:21-23; 2Ti 3:5).
Hos 8:3 Israel has rejected the good This VERB (BDB 276, KB 276, Qal PERFECT) is repeated in Hos 8:5. Israel rejected God’s covenant. He rejects their calf worship! This seems to refer to YHWH’s covenant obedience (cf. Amo 5:14-15; Mic 6:8), which denotes a healthy, loving, prosperous society.
Hos 8:4 They have set up kings, but not by Me Note the parallel between the first two lines. The next two lines are parallel to Hos 8:5’s first two lines and the last two of Hos 8:6. All of these refer to the golden calves. Images meant to represent YHWH (cf. Exodus 32), but which had turned into fertility idols!
They refers to the leaders (priests and princes) of Israel. They had turned away from the Davidic kings (in Judah) and appointed their own leaders and made their own worship sites (the two calves set up by Jeroboam I at Bethel and Dan). The contemporary example is the series of kings after Jeroboam II, (see note on Hos 7:3). YHWH was their true king and only He could designate His earthly representative.
Hos 8:5 calf Jeroboam I, the new leader of the northern tribe (in 922 B.C.) did not want his people to continue to worship in Jerusalem so he set up two golden calves as a symbol of YHWHism in Dan in the north and Bethel in the south in order to keep his people at home. This was thoroughly denounced (e.g., Exo 32:4-5; 1Ki 12:28-29; Hos 13:2).
He has rejected. . .My anger burns against them God’s feelings about these alternate worship sites is clearly expressed:
1. Reject (BDB 276, KB 276, Qal PERFECT) is a strong term; the same root in the Hiphil means stench! The NIV translates it as throw out.
2. Anger burned (BDB 354, KB 351, Qal PERFECT) is used to describe God’s reaction to covenant disobedience (e.g., often in Moses, Deu 6:15; Deu 7:4; Deu 11:17; Deu 29:26; Deu 31:17; rare in the prophets, Isa 5:24-25).
NASB, NRSVHow long will they be incapable of innocence
NKJVHow long will it be until they attain to innocence
TEVHow long will it be before they give up their idolatry
NJBHow long will it be before they recover their innocence
This is a rhetorical question that demands a negative response. Israel has been permanently rendered incapable of innocence or purity!
Hos 8:6 This verse may be a sarcastic response to Israel’s (of all people) idolatry. Those who were warned to have no image of God (cf. Exo 20:4-5; Exo 32:1-4; Deu 5:7-9) have a calf two of them!
Hos 8:7 For they sow the wind,
And they reap the whirlwind The first two lines form a proverb that speaks of our responsibility to God both corporately and individually (i.e., the spiritual principle of sowing and reaping, cf. Hos 10:12-13; Hos 12:2; Job 4:8; 2Co 9:6; Gal 6:7).
strangers would swallow it up This is a reference to the exile of Israel by Assyria (cf. Isa 1:7). The crops (if there are any, cf. Hos 8:7, lines c,d) that Israel had thanked Ba’al for would not be enjoyed by others (i.e., Assyrians).
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
Set the trumpet, &c. See Hos 5:8. Compare Isa 58:1.
He shall come. Supply the Ellipsis (App-6) thus: “[It (i.e. the threatened judgment)] is coming”, &c. Reference to Pentateuch (Deu 28:49). App-92.
as. This is not merely comparison but assertion: i.e. swiftly. It is not the eagle that comes against the Temple. Compare Jer 4:13. Hab 1:8.
the Lord. Hebrew. Jehovah. App-4.
transgressed. Hebrew. ‘abar. App-44. Same word as in Hos 6:7; not the same as in Hos 7:13; Hos 14:9.
My covenant . . . My law. Reference to Pentateuch (Deu 4:13), where a like Alternation is found. App-92.
trespassed. Hebrew. pasha’. App-44Israel shall cry, &c. Render: “to Me will they cry: ‘My God, ‘ we know Thee: Israel [knoweth Thee]”.
God. Hebrew. Elohim. App-4.
we know Thee. Compare Mat 7:22. Joh 8:54, Joh 8:55. Isa 29:13 (Mat 15:8).
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Chapter 8
Set the trumpet to thy mouth. He shall come as an eagle against the house of the LORD, because they have transgressed my covenant, and trespassed against my law ( Hsa Hos 8:1 ).
So God again is giving His indictment against them. Number one, they have trespassed His covenant. Number two, they transgressed His law. God had established a covenant with the nation Israel. The covenant was the basis whereby God would be their God and would bless them. “Now if you do these things, I will be your God and I will bless thee. I will multiply thy crops and I will multiply thee upon the face of the earth.” And God tells of all of the blessings if He is their God and they will only worship and serve Him. “I will grant you all of these blessings, but this the basis for them. This is the covenant.” And so they had a covenant relationship with God, but they had transgressed against the covenant. They had broken the covenant that God had made.
Now it is interesting that God made many covenants in the Old Testament. God made a covenant with Adam; Adam broke it. God made a covenant with Abraham and Abraham’s seed; they broke it. God made a covenant with Israel; they broke it. Now God has made a new covenant with the church. In Hebrews we are told that it is a better covenant. God has established a basis whereby He will be your God and you can be His people; again, a covenant relationship. But if Adam broke the covenant and Abraham’s seed broke the covenant and Israel broke the covenant, what hope is there for us? Why do we think we are any better than they are? In reality we’re not, but we have a better covenant. God’s covenant with Adam, Abraham, and through Moses, with the children of Israel was all predicated upon their obedience. “And if you do these things you shall live by them.” God’s covenant with us through Jesus Christ is predicated upon His faithfulness and my just believing in Him and in His faithfulness.
Now man failed, but God can’t fail. The covenant with Israel was broken because Israel transgressed the covenant. God’s covenant with me will never be broken because it’s based upon the faithfulness of God to keep His Word. And God has promised that if I believe in His Son, I’ll have eternal life. Glorious covenant that God has made with me, and I have no intention of ever doing anything other than believing on His Son. So, I am trusting God and the faithfulness of God, not my righteousness, not my obedience to a set of rules or regulations, but my love for Jesus Christ and my faithfulness–or actually, my faith in Him, His faithfulness, and in His work for me.
So Israel had transgressed, they had trespassed against God’s law. The law of the Lord is good. Paul says, “The law is good.” The problem wasn’t the law. God’s law was holy, it was just, it was good. Nothing wrong with God’s law at all.
Unfortunately, many times God’s law comes into a bad light because we oftentimes like to say, “Oh, we’re not under law,” like it was a bad thing, “we’re under grace.” And we have a tendency to sometimes sort of look at the law as something that was evil, something that was not good. No, the law was holy; it was just, and it is good. Micah said, “He hath shown thee, O man, what is good and what the Lord requires of thee” ( Mic 6:8 ). Here in verse Hos 8:3 : “Israel’s cast off that which is good.” They’ve cast off the covenant of God; they’ve cast off the law of God. They’ve cast off that which was good. There’s nothing wrong with the law of God. Paul said the problem is with us. The law is spiritual and we are carnal. The problem isn’t with God’s law; it’s good. David said, “Happy is the man who walks not in the council of the ungodly, nor stands in the way with sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful. But whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and in this law does he meditate both day and night.” It’s good. “Because he’ll be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, bringing forth his fruit in season. His leaf also shall not wither. Whatsoever he does will prosper” Psa 1:1-3 ). The law good. God has given in the law the basis for a society, the basis for man living together, the basis for you to have a happy, fulfilling rich life. Nothing wrong with the law. But they transgressed or they trespassed against the law of God. They cast out the law of God, trespassed against it.
Now Israel shall cry unto me, My God, we know thee ( Hsa Hos 8:2 ).
But God declares He doesn’t know them.
For they have cast off the thing that is good: [God, their relationship with Him, the covenant.] and thus the enemy is gonna pursue them. They have set up kings, but not by me ( Hsa Hos 8:2-4 ):
Now in the Northern Kingdom they set up their kings. The people called for Jeroboam and it wasn’t by God. God’s promise was to David and to his seed. And then in the Northern Kingdom it came that there went from one dynasty to another as there were the murders, the assassination of the kings and it really became chaotic.
They have set up kings, but not by me: they have made princes, and I knew it not: [that is, it was not by my approval] and of their silver and of their gold have they made them idols, that they might be cut off ( Hsa Hos 8:4 ).
So they had begun to worship and serve other gods. This is God’s indictment.
Thy calf ( Hsa Hos 8:5 ),
The god that they set up in Samaria and said, “This is the god that brought you out of Egypt.”
Thy calf, O Samaria, has cast thee off; my anger is kindled against thee: how long will it be ere they attain to innocency? For from Israel was it also: that the workman made it; therefore it is not God: but the calf of Samaria shall be broken in pieces ( Hsa Hos 8:5-6 ).
So God pronounces the judgment upon their gods.
For they have sown the wind ( Hsa Hos 8:7 ),
By their turning away from God, by their establishing the idol worship, by their transgressing against the covenant and trespassing against the law they had sown the wind.
and they shall reap the whirlwind ( Hsa Hos 8:7 ):
Oh, what a lesson this ought to be to our nation today. We have been guilty now for several years of sowing the wind. Gradually, the courts have been ruling God out of the public life of the nation. The courts recently ruled in Arkansas that scientific creationism is nothing more than religion in disguise; it cannot be taught in the school and thus the children cannot be taught any alternative to the evolutionary theory. I think this is a very sad and tragic judgment and I think that it will have great repercussions. For the teaching of the evolutionary theory has already had great repercussions in our society.
It would seem that the schools would wake up pretty soon, the public school system, to realize that it is bankrupt. Their educational processes are bankrupt. We teach the children that they are animals and then we wail and cry because they act like animals. And in many of our public schools they have to hire police protection for the teachers to keep them from being assaulted by the little animals in their classrooms. It’s sad. The public education system has become a zoo. Califano who used to be in charge of the Health, Education and Welfare Department, as he was leaving office said, “The worst place you could place a teenage child is in a public high school.” Quite an admission. But why? Because we’ve sown the wind. We have tried to take away any real base.
It has no stalk: ( Hsa Hos 8:7 )
That’s what the Lord says.
By allowing the influence of Dewey and Watson and the Huxley’s, we’ve allowed the existential philosophy with its humanistic base to pervade and to prevail in our public education system. And thus, the challenge of what is good and what is evil, and the rejection of any universal base of good, the rejection of any absolutes. Reflected in our art, modern art, which if you can understand it you’re weirder than I am. It doesn’t have any true form. Now there are pictures that I can understand, that’s a farm and that’s a fence around the farm and that’s a cow out in the pasture and I can see that, and anybody can see that. But some of these modern forms of art where they stand back and throw the paints at the canvas and they put cow in the pasture next to the barn and look as I may, I can’t find the cow in the pasture.
It’s like when I was a kid and I used to study the plaster on the ceiling and look for the pictures in the plaster on the ceiling or looking for the forms in the clouds. And you can, you know, your mind can see things and as a child your imagination is very vivid. I used to see all kinds of things on the ceiling; you know the irregularities in the plaster there. Of course, these poor kids today with acoustical ceilings, what can you see in an acoustical ceiling? But, you know, lying in bed and you’re sick and all and you have nothing to do but look up at the ceiling. And it used to be with this textured plaster, you could make out different things in the ceiling. And sometimes I’d say to my brother, “Look! That looks like a horse up there!” “I don’t see any horse.” “Ya, look at that.” “Blaah, I don’t see a horse,” you know. Well, I could, you know, but it is like seeing Orion chasing the Bull, you know. It takes a little imagination, but you can make it out.
But modern art, you see, what does it do? It testifies that there isn’t an absolute. It’s what you see in it, that’s what counts. And every man sees what he wants. But the effect of existentialism is that of separating us. It takes away a unified base. It makes me an island; it makes me all alone in this big vast universe because no one is else is just quite like I am. No one else sees the same things I see, and suddenly I feel all alone and very lonely in a big vast universe because existentialism has isolated me and made me an individual and I’ve got to now start from my own human base, humanism. And I’ve got to now interpret all of the things the world around me as best I can and relate to them as I can without any base of where to start. Not having any rights or wrongs, it’s all how I relate to it, how I feel about it, how it affects me. There’s no stock, there’s no base, and it leads to despair; it leads to hopelessness.
But not only is it without stalk,
the bud shall yield no meal ( Hsa Hos 8:7 ):
A life lived after the flesh will bring a person to emptiness. Pursuing your own fleshly ambitions will not bring you satisfaction but only a deeper hunger that cannot be fulfilled. It’ll yield no meal; it’s all chaff. You go to eat it and there’s no nourishment, there’s nothing there. Life becomes empty like chaff.
And if it does yield [any flour] any meal, the strangers will come and swallow it up. For Israel is swallowed up: now shall they be among the Gentiles as a vessel wherein there is no pleasure ( Hsa Hos 8:7-8 ).
Cast off by God. Dwelling among the Gentiles for two days, but in the third day they’re gonna live and be raised up.
For they are gone up to Assyria, a wild ass alone by himself: Ephraim hath hired lovers. And yea, though they have hired among the nations, now will I gather them, and they shall sorrow a little for the burden of the king of princes. Because Ephraim hath made many altars to sin, the altars shall be unto him to sin. I have written to him the great things of my law, but they were counted as strange things ( Hsa Hos 8:9-12 ).
Whenever a man begins to count the law as strange things he’s in trouble.
They sacrifice flesh for the sacrifices of my offerings, they eat it; but the LORD does not accept them; now will he remember their iniquity, and visit their sins: they shall return to Egypt. For Israel has forgotten his Maker ( Hsa Hos 8:13-14 ),
What a sad and tragic indictment. The people have forgotten their Maker.
and they’re building temples, and Judah has multiplied his fenced cities: but I’ll send a fire upon his cities, and shall devour the palaces ( Hsa Hos 8:14 ). “
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
Hos 8:1-7
ISRAELS INGRATITUDE-THE LORDS LAMENT
TEXT: Hos 8:1-7
In this chapter the prophet Hosea gives Gods reasons for the imminent destruction of the northern kingdom; moral, religious and political rebellion against Jehovah God when she knew better.
Hos 8:1 Set the trumpetH7782 toH413 thy mouth.H2441 He shall come as an eagleH5404 againstH5921 the houseH1004 of the LORD,H3068 becauseH3282 they have transgressedH5674 my covenant,H1285 and trespassedH6586 againstH5921 my law.H8451
Hos 8:1 . . . TRUMPET . . . AS AN EAGLE . . . AGAINST THE HOUSE OF JEHOVAH . . . G Campbell Morgan says, This chapter is dramatic in its method. It opens with two clarion cries; and our translators have just a little robbed the passage of its arresting character by the introduction of certain words, in order to euphony, and the making of smooth reading and sense. There is no such word as Set in the Hebrew text here-that word has been supplied by the translators. Neither are the words, he cometh, a part of the Hebrew text. Actually, the imperativeness of the call is more impressive with the supplied words omitted (as in our Paraphrase).
Zerr: Hos 8:1. The pronouns in this verse represent three different nouns; they are the people of Israel, the Assyrians and the Lord. A trumpet was used as an alarm of war (Num 10:9). and the statement is used figuratively as a prediction. He shall come means the Assyrian army shall come against the land. This will be according to the decree of the Lord to punish Israel because they have transgressed my covenant, and trespassed against my (the Lord’s) law.
This eagle was undoubtedly a pictorialization of the successive kings of Assyria who swooped down upon Israel just a few short years after Hosea pronounced Gods judgment upon her. One cannot help but remember the warning of Moses in Deu 28:49 in the same words as these. Moses warned them if they should forget God and break the covenant and violate the revealed law of God, a nation from afar, swift as the eagle, would come upon them and destroy them. Transgressing Gods covenant is much more personal than mere violation of some written statutes. To break covenant is to personally distrust and despise the One with whom you have the covenant. It is a matter of the heart and soul. This, of course, would manifest itself in scorn and disobedience to written laws of God.
Hos 8:2 IsraelH3478 shall cryH2199 unto me, My God,H430 we knowH3045 thee.
Hos 8:2 THEY SHALL CRY . . . MY GOD, WE ISRAEL KNOW THEE . . . When the ruthless, blood-thirsty, Assyrian hordes swoop down upon Israel, they shall instinctively call upon the God whom they have depised all these years for help. They will plead, We know thee! For centuries now they have refused to have Jehovah in their knowledge . . . they have been exchanging the truth of God for lies. But they should have sought the Lord when He could be found and have called upon Him when He was near (cf. Isa 55:6). Now it is too late, for although Israel spread forth its hands and make many prayers, God will hide His eyes and will not listen (cf. Isa 1:15). They should have thought that a man cannot be a friend of the world and a friend of God at the same time (cf. Jas 4:1-10). We remember the words of the Lord Jesus, Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven . . . (Mat 7:21). It is with the heart that man believes unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation (Rom 10:9-10), but he must believe with the heart as well as make confession with the mouth-this Israel did not do. In connection with this verse we remember the candid statement of the apostle John, And by this we may be sure that we know him, if we keep his commandments. He who says I know him but disobeys his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him. (1Jn 2:3-4). Israel cried, My God, we Israel know thee, but Israel was a liar! What an affront to God even today for those self-willed, sensual-living people who flagrantly disregard the commandments of God, cry, in times of distress, My God, we know thee. They are liars and the truth is not in them. God is known only through keeping His commandments! There simply is no other way to know God! It should be very obvious to any intelligent person that Gods commandments are found only in the Bible and for this age in the New Testament.
Zerr: Hos 8:2. This short verse predicts the distress of Israel when he realizes the results of disobeying the Lord.
Hos 8:3 IsraelH3478 hath cast offH2186 the thing that is good:H2896 the enemyH341 shall pursueH7291 him.
Hos 8:4 TheyH1992 have set up kings,H4427 but notH3808 byH4480 me: they have made princes,H8323 and I knewH3045 it not:H3808 of their silverH3701 and their goldH2091 have they madeH6213 them idols,H6091 thatH4616 they may be cut off.H3772
Hos 8:3-4 ISRAEL HATH CAST OFF THAT WHICH IS GOOD . . . THEY HAVE SET UP KINGS, BUT NOT BY ME . . . THEY HAVE MADE THEM IDOLS . . . Israel refused to have God in their knowledge . . . she exchanged the truth of God for a lie (cf. Rom 1:18 ff). Israels deliberate rejection of the good way is exactly like that of Judah described by Jeremiah (Jer 6:16-19)! Israel refused to stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls. They said, we will not walk in it. Israel has cast off the good way of God for the way of idolatry that is abominable. Very soon now the worthlessness of what she has chosen will be demonstrated. Refusing the way of God in religion they also rejected His counsel in politics. This is what is happening in America, the beautiful! Men in high places have cast off the good . . . they have set up kings, but not by Jehovah. Men have tried to rule without the counsel of God and since they have ignored all His counsel, He will laugh at their calamity and mock when panic strikes (cf. Pro 1:24 ff). During 253 years, for which the kingdom of Israel lasted, 18 kings reigned over it, out of ten different families and every one of them came to a violent end. Not once was the will of God sought in the rule of any of these kings. Even Jehu conducted his reign contrary to the will of God. The nation of Israel, so abundantly blessed by Jehovah, took of this abundance and fashioned by their own hands, gods after the likeness of pagan idols. The god of this world, Satan, blinded their eyes with deceit and pride, and Israel loved it to be so. We quote here from the ISBE, Vol. III, pg. 1448:
Zerr: Hos 8:3. The thing that Israel had cast off was the covenant of the Lord. The enemy will be the Assyrian, and the prediction was fulfilled in 2 Kings 17. Hos 8:4. This verse has special reference to the events of 1 Kings 12, The nation of the Jews divided because of the unwise actions and announcements of Rehoboam, Ten tribes revolted and set up a line of kings, starting with Jeroboam, that was in opposition to the God of Israel. It Is true that Rehoboam tried to interfere with the division, and that God rebuked him for it, saying this thing is from me. But that was because the conditions were such that He saw the need for the revolution to chastise the natiob, but originally such an arrangement of the kings was not by me, saith the Lord. Princes, and I knew it not means that the Lord did not approve of the appointment of princes that, was made by Jeroboam, The word prince means any leading person in a community, official or unofficial. After the division of the tribes, Jeroboam made priests of the lowest of the people (1Ki 12:31). Made them idols is recorded in 1Ki 12:28-32.
The special enticements to idolatry as offered by these various cults were found in their deification of natural forces and their appeal to primitive human desires, esp. the sexual; also through associations produced by intermarriage and through the appeal to patriotism, when the help of some cruel deity was sought in time of war. Baal and Astarte worship, which was esp. attractive, was closely associated with fornication and drunkenness (Amo 2:7-8; 1Ki 14:23 ff), and also greatly to magic and soothsaying (e.g. Isa 2:6; Isa 3:2; Isa 8:19).
Sacrifices to the idols were offered by fire (Hos 4:13); libations were poured out (Isa 57:6; Jer 7:18); the first-fruits of the earth and tithes were presented (Hos 2:8); tables of food were set before them (Isa 65:11); the worshippers kissed the idols or threw them kisses (1Ki 19:18; Hos 13:2; Job 31:27); stretched out their hands in adoration (Isa 44:20); knelt or prostrated themselves before them and sometimes danced about the altar, gashing themselves with knives (1Ki 18:26-28).
The consequences of Israels idolatry are so certain it seems as if Israel had intended it to be so. She is in a head-long plunge into destruction and does not seem to want it otherwise!
Hos 8:5 Thy calf,H5695 O Samaria,H8111 hath cast thee off;H2186 mine angerH639 is kindledH2734 against them: how longH5704 H4970 will it be ereH3808 they attainH3201 to innocency?H5356
Hos 8:5 . . . HOW LONG WILL IT BE ERE THEY ATTAIN TO INNOCENCY? The origin of calf-worship among the Semites probably goes back beyond Abraham. The origin of animal worship is hidden in obscurity, but reverence for the bull and the cow is widespread among the most ancient historic cults, The ancient Babylonian culture (from which Abrahams ancestors came) revered the bull as the symbol of their greatest gods, Anu and Sin and Marduk. Hadad-rimmon, an Amorite deity, is pictured standing on the back of a bull. In Phoenicia, northern Syria, Moab, and other places the goddess Ishtar has the cow for her symbol, and when this nude or half-nude goddess appears in Palestine she often stands on a bull or cow. With the Hebrews calf-worship began, of course, with Aaron (cf. Exodus 32). It was perpetuated by Jeroboam I in the northern kingdom for political and economic reasons (1Ki 12:26-33; 2Ch 10:14-15).
Zerr: Hos 8:5. Samaria is named because that city became the permanent capital of the 10-tribe kingdom (1Ki 16:24). Thy calf means the idols that are referred to in the preceding verse. Hath cast thee off is a prediction with a twofold meaning. The idolatry of the nation was to bring upon It the wrath of God, and when that came, the idols were to be powerless to save it or prevent the invasion by the enemy.
In the light of their deep involvements in unholy alliances and unspiritual procedure, a logical question is raised: How long will it be ere they attain to innocency? How long are they incapable of purity of walk before the Lord, instead of abominations of idolatry. That is to say, being bent upon backsliding, having invested so heavily of their gold and silver in idols, having defied the infinite God in their politics, having rejected the commands of the Lord, having hardened their hearts against the prophets message, how long would it require for them to extricate themselves? How long before they would detach themselves from unrighteousness? Israel had become like the thing they loved? (Hos 9:10). We shall deal with this principle later but here it is evident that Israel has so long loved and imitated its detestable gods it has thoroughly and irrevocably contaminated itself.
Hos 8:6 ForH3588 from IsraelH4480 H3478 was itH1931 also: the workmanH2796 madeH6213 it;H1931 therefore it is notH3808 God:H430 butH3588 the calfH5695 of SamariaH8111 shall beH1961 broken in pieces.H7616
Hos 8:6 . . . THE WORKMAN MADE IT, AND IT IS NO GOD; . . . What makes idolatry so abominable in Israel is that she, of all nations, should have known that an idol is no god. Israel had the special revelations of God in word and deed to demonstrate the nothingness of idols. What folly! What vanity! Isaiah satirically speaks of the same phenomena (Isa 41:21-24; Isa 44:6-22). The great apostle to the Gentiles had to deal with this as he preached to the heathen (cf. Act 19:26; 1Co 8:4 ff, etc.). Men still deify images, philosophies and things in this twentieth century. What difference if it be a figurine or a philosophy-it is still idolatry. Any image, thing or idea that is worshipped becomes an idol. Even covetousness is idolatry!
Zerr: Hos 8:6. The idol came from Israel, originated there, because their workman made it. The true God is the maker of all things and is the only One who should be worshiped. But these people of Israel were worshiping a god that was the work of their own hands. Calf of Samaria shall be broken predicts that idolatry was to be uprooted and excluded from the practices of the nation. The fulfillment of this is shown in the quotation from history at Isa 1:25.
Hos 8:7 ForH3588 they have sownH2232 the wind,H7307 and they shall reapH7114 the whirlwind:H5492 it hath noH369 stalk:H7054 the budH6780 shall yieldH6213 noH1097 meal:H7058 if so beH194 it yield,H6213 the strangersH2114 shall swallow it up.H1104
Hos 8:7 . . . THEY SOW THE WIND, . . . THEY SHALL REAP THE WHIRLDWIND . . . The Nation of Israel sowed their wild oats. They were sowing (putting their trust in) vain things, empty, useless things. This was their crop. Now they were about to reap the harvest of continued sowing of vanities-the harvest would be a whirlwind of destruction and disillusionment. Temporal things cannot satisfy (Ecc 1:17; Ecc 2:12-17; Ecc 2:4-11; Ecc 6:2-9). Worldly things never bring rewarding harvest days of joy, peace, fulfillment, satisfaction, holiness. But more serious than that, God has so built His universe that when men sin and pervert even those things of the world, innocent enough in themselves, they will reap a whirlwind of destruction, unhappiness, disillusionment, strife and the judgment and eternal wrath of God. When Gods physical laws are violated, trouble comes! When Gods spiritual laws are violated, trouble comes! Israel was doing both!
Zerr: Hos 8:7. Sown wind . . . reap whirlwind agrees perfectly with Gal 6:7. The only difference in principle between a wind and a whirlwind is in degree or quantity, for both are wind. A whirlwind is a greater and stronger thing than a wind but is in the same class as a substance. It is likewise In the case of sowing and reaping. If a man sows wheat he expects to reap wheat; but he should get more wheat at the harvest than he sowed. A whirlwind would destroy all the other growth virtually, and if any remained standing after the storm passed by, strangers would get it.
God was going to bring some sort of calamity upon Israel to keep her from producing a wheat crop. If by chance a few grains of wheat should reach fruition, the enemy God was about to turn loose upon Israel would consume all that. All those material abundances in which Israel gloried and which she attributed to her false gods were about to be taken away. Perhaps then she would repent.
Questions
1. Where are the Hebrew people warned that if they should transgress Gods law an enemy, swift as the eagle, would come upon them?
2. Why is transgressing Gods covenant so serious?
3. How do we know Israel did not know God?
4. Describe calf-worship.
5. What is meant by the phrase how long will it be ere they attain to innocency?
6. Why should Israel know that an idol is no god?
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
From this statement of the case the prophet turned to the pronouncement of judgment. This he did by adopting the figure of the trumpet lifted to the mouth, on which five blasts were sounded, in each of which some aspect of the sin of the people was set forth as revealing the reason for judgment.
The first blast declared the coming judgment under the figure of an eagle, the reason being the transgressions and trespass of the people.
The second blast emphasized Israel’s sin of rebellion in that they had set up kings and princes without the authority of Jehovah, and had made idols.
The third blast dealt with Israel’s idolatry. She had set up the calf of Samaria, which Jehovah had cast off and broken in pieces. She had been guilty of sowing the wind, that is, emptiness; and therefore she must reap the whirlwind, that is, the force of emptiness.
The fourth blast anounced Israel’s alliances. She had gone to Assyria like a wild ass, alone, and her judgment was that her hire among the nations had resulted in diminishing her.
The fifth blast drew attention to the altars of sin which had been raised contrary to light, and by which sacrifice had been violated, and therefore judgment was announced.
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
Reaping the Whirlwind
Hos 8:1-14
A conqueror was at hand who should subdue and punish the whole nation for taking its own course, irrespective of God, Hos 8:4-8; for seeking foreign alliances which could bring only oppression in their train, Hos 8:9-10; and for multiplying altars and fortresses which were destined to be destroyed, Hos 8:11; Hos 8:14. The circumstances referred to in this chapter seem to point to the reigns of Menahem and Uzziah, 2Ki 15:19; 2Ch 26:6-15.
Hos 8:5 is very striking. Israel had renounced Jehovah for the likeness of a calf, and now in the misfortunes which had overtaken them, their calf had cast them off. What is it that you are putting in the place of God? Power, wealth, the help of influential friends? Sooner or later it will fail you. How different is the One who perpetually encourages us, saying, I will not fail nor forsake thee, and who promises to carry us to hoar hairs. The persistence with which Israel turned to other lovers left God no option but to put them back into a furnace such as Egypt had been, which would finally burn put their apostasy. Only when we walk before God with a perfect heart are we strong and happy. Once entangle yourself with expedients and alliances, and you lay yourself open to many sorrows.
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
Chapter 8
A Vessel Wherein Is No Pleasure
God seems almost to exhaust figurative language in describing the unhappy condition of His deluded people, their hearts set on wandering from Him who was their only real good. We have already contemplated them in their wretchedly fallen estate, under the expressive symbols of an adulterous wife, a wine-inflamed drunkard, a backsliding heifer, troops of robbers, a leavened mass, a cake not turned, a silly dove, and a deceitful bow. Now they are warned that because of their sins they shall be scattered among the nations as a vessel wherein is no pleasure.
This was the logical result of the covenant at Sinai, where they pledged themselves to obey all the words of the law, which promised blessing to all who kept it, but invoked a curse upon the violators of its precepts. According to this chapter, Israel had broken it at every point. Therefore, on that ground, they had nothing to claim. That God had wondrous resources of grace, yet to be manifested, the final chapter makes abundantly plain; but they would only come into the good of it when they owned their sin and gave up all pretension to merit.
The prophet, as it were, sounds the trumpet to summon the whole congregation into the presence of the Lord, that they may face the reality of their condition as a people who have transgressed the covenant and trespassed against the law (ver. 1).
In the second verse, we might understand a hint of future restoration: Israel shall cry unto Me, My God, we know Thee. But it seems rather to imply their unconsciousness of their true state at that time, and during the years of their wanderings while under Gods hand. With amazing effrontery, they cry, My God, we, Israel, know Thee, as the R. V. puts it; while all the time they go on in their folly, having cast off the thing that is good, and so are driven before their enemies. They set up kings after their own heart, and make princes without asking Jehovahs counsel. Idolatry too is everywhere nourishing, and the temple service but a mockery (vers. 3, 4). Thus do they profess that they know God, but in works deny Him. How easy it is, alas, to fall into the truly lamentable state of soul here depicted! How many today talk of being the people of the Lord, or being in the line of the testimony (to use a vainglorious phrase popular in certain quarters), while all the time condoning unrighteousness and walking in disobedience to the Word of God. In His time our Lord had to say: The scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses seat: all therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not after their works: for they say, and do not-they could preach to others fairly well according to the Law, but their practice was the true indicator of their souls condition-and how far from God! It should ever be remembered that while it is of prime importance to be in a right position as to ecclesiastical and other lines of truth, a merely correct position is a poor thing if there be not likewise a right condition of soul. Neither can be neglected without loss; but nothing can be worse than to be priding oneself on maintaining divine ground, and going on in the line of the testimony, while the life is denied and the heart is insubject to the truth.
But the soul that turns from the living and true God to idols, of whatever nature, will learn at last what it is to be bereft and forsaken when help is most needed. The calf of Samaria cast them off. As with the priests of Baal in Elijahs day, they cried, but there was none that answered, nor any that regarded. And how could it be otherwise, when the work of their own hands was that in which they trusted! (vers. 5, 6).
Thus, having sown the wind, they had to reap the whirlwind, as many a soul has done before and since. Yet how slow we are to learn! Theoretically, all saints know that there can be no real blessing apart from walking with God; but experimentally, how easily most of us are lured aside, and led after other gods, when some opportunity seems to present itself for profit or advantage! But at last all have to realize that the only result of such sowing will be disappointment and sorrow. The bud shall yield no meal: if so be it yield, the strangers shall swallow it up (ver. 7).
Apply this to every department of life, and it will be found to be a rule to which there are no exceptions. Apparent success may seem to follow upon disobedience, but the end is not yet. We may fancy God and His Word can be disregarded, but we shall prove in bitterness of soul that it is an evil thing indeed to choose our own path.
How many a broken-hearted wife could be cited as an example of the principle here enunciated; or how often a wretched and unhappy husband becomes a living illustration of it! God has plainly forbidden unequal yokes. The Word is clear, and the young saint has it pressed home upon the conscience. But one who seems to promise well as a suited life-partner crosses the path. Esteem develops into affection. Affection ripens into love. A proposal of marriage is made. Then begins a period of doubt and vacillation. Gods Word is plain enough, but its clear precepts are forgotten. Amiable qualities are remembered. The fact that the other party is unsaved is glossed over. A readiness to go to the meetings of Christians, a willingness to listen to the Scripture, is magnified into a persuasion that a work of God has begun in the soul; and at last the other party, only too readily, is drawn into the snare. An unequal yoke is entered into, and a lifetime of regret follows. In by far the majority of cases the seeming interest in divine things passes away with the first few weeks of married life, and then, even if open opposition is not developed, a cold, studied indifference ensues in regard to eternal things that no kindness or consideration can cover up. Thus the child of God is doubly wretched as the sense of disobedience comes home to the, at last, awakened conscience; and the realization presses upon the soul that the one so loved has no concern about God or His Christ, and that, if not soon awakened and saved, two who loved each other on earth must be separated for all eternity.
And so in many other ways the same sad law is fulfilled, whether in business, social, or religious life. Oh that we might learn from what God has so plainly put before us in His Word, and from the unhappy experiences of thousands, the danger of trifling with conscience, and with the truth which sanctifies the obedient soul!
It was because of refusing thus to obey His Word that God had at last to say of His earthly people, Israel is swallowed up: now shall they be among the Gentiles as a vessel wherein is no pleasure (ver. 8). This describes in one verse their history for over two thousand years. Driven out of their land, scattered among all nations, they have been as a vessel in which God could take no delight. In this, how opposite to Him who came to save them! This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, was the Fathers announcement when, at His baptism, He offered Himself as the One who came to do always those things that please Him, i. e., the Father. He is the vessel of Gods pleasure. Israel has become a vessel wherein is no pleasure. How marked the contrast!
It was in vain for them to turn to Assyria, or any of the surrounding nations. There could be no help for them while under the curse of the broken law. Like a wild ass, they had shown the untameableness of their nature. They knew not how to obey. So they must sorrow under the power of the Gentile oppressor whom God had made a king of princes-that is, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon (vers. 9, 10; compare Eze 26:7)-for God is evidently passing by the Assyrian, and has before His mind him to whom the Gentile dominion was first fully entrusted.
Ephraim had made many altars to sin, by offering sacrifice to demons, and not to God. His sin should return upon his own head (ver. 11).
The pith of all Jehovahs controversy with him is declared in ver. 12: I have written to him the great things of My law, but they were counted as a strange thing. They were responsible to act in accordance with the written Word. They had failed to do so. Therefore the Judge was at the door. As with them, so it is with Christendom- never more manifest than at the present time- Gods Word is despised and set at naught on all sides. The end, therefore, cannot now be far off.
Having despised the Word, it was useless to bring offerings and to sacrifice and eat flesh before the Lord. He could not accept worship from a disobedient and gainsaying people. He remembers their sins, and must deal with them because of their rejection of His law. Morally, they should return to Egypt, as in fact actually a remnant did in the last days of Jeremiah. For Israel hath forgotten his Maker, and buildeth temples! They cast His commandments behind their back, yet built temples where a pretended worship was offered. History repeats itself. The words might well describe what is so prevalent today. But the day of the Lord is coming; and, as of old, a fire shall be sent forth from God that will consume all the vain works of haughty men when the hour of Jehovahs wrath shall strike (vers. 13, 14).
Be it remembered, responsibility is always increased in accordance as Gods truth is revealed. How solemn then the present moment, and how serious must be the results, if truth be held in the mind that does not change the life!
Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets
Hos 8:2
I. The prophet’s language may justly be regarded as a distinct promise or prophecy on the part of God. He says, with that infinitude of meaning that all words truly spoken by Him must have: “To Me shall they cry, My God, we know Thee, Israel,” or “Israel shall cry, My God, we know Thee.” In the very midst of the national sins and disasters of His people, the Lord in His anger yet remembers mercy, and declares that the time shall come when idolatrous Israel shall confess to the knowledge of Him, in deed and in truth.
II. The conversion of Israel, we are taught, is contingent upon the bringing in of the Gentiles. To say, therefore, that Israel shall be restored, is to say that the world shall be converted; that the world shall cry, “My God, we know Thee;” that the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea. Nor must we judge of this matter from our own position in time; the wheels of His chariot seem to tarry, the Bridegroom is long in coming, but God has eternity to work in. He is not hampered by human circumstances, nor hurried for lack of time. If His purposes are real purposes, they concern the human race as a whole, and their accomplishment is coeval with the consummation of the race.
III. It is a remarkable transition here from the singular to the plural; from the “My God” to the “We know Thee.” No scheme of religion would be complete that did not equally recognize the claims of the individual, and those of the multitude; none could be Divine that did not reconcile them. But the religion of the Bible says that “we” is made up of a whole nation, or rather of many nations, and yet every unit is a living entity, and instinct with life; for every individual cries “My God.” Many of our practical problems of the present day consist in the difficulty of adjusting these rival claims. They can only be adjusted, they can only be eradicated and reconciled in the kingdom of God, when every unit of the great army that no man can number, can cry in deed, and in truth, “My God,” and when they all alike can say, “We know Thee.”
S. Leathes, Good Words, 1874, p. 606.
Reference: Hos 8:2.-J. H. Hitchens, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxvii., p. 59.
Hos 8:5
I. Consider the expression, “Thy calf, O Samaria, hath cast thee off.” The clever policy by which Jeroboam was to escape a difficulty which he could and ought to have met in faith in the providence of God, not only failed, but ruined his house; and brought down God’s heaviest judgments on an unhappy land. Hardly had his son taken his father’s place when Baasha rose and hurled him from his throne, and with that thirst for blood, which to this day marks the Oriental spirit, slew every man, woman, and child, belonging to the royal family. And amid the silence that reigned over this scene of ruthless massacre, the voice of Providence was heard, saying, “Thy calf, O Jeroboam, hath cast thee off.” What the calf did to the monarch, it did to the people-here called Samaria-“who, following the steps of their king apostatized from God, and turned their backs on His temple. Judgment succeeded judgment. The ten tribes, a broken bleeding band, left the land of Israel to go into banishment-to be lost for ages or for ever; and over the two idols that were left behind without a solitary worshipper at their shrine, God in providence might be heard saying, “Thy calf, O Samaria, hath cast thee off.”
II. By way of warning and instruction I observe that the sentiments and spirit of my text are illustrated: (1) By the case of those who put riches in the place of God; (2) by those who live for fame-for the favour, not of God, but of men; (3) by those who seek their happiness in the pleasures of sin.
T. Guthrie, Family Treasury, Sept. 1861, p. 129 (see also The Way to Life, p. 20).
References: Hos 8:7.-Spurgeon, My Sermon Notes: Ecclesiastes to Malachi, p. 312. Hos 8:12.-Ibid., Sermons, vol. i., No. 15; J. Hiles Hitchens, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xvii., p. 133; J. Irons, Thursday Penny Pulpit, vol. xvi., p. 353.
Hos 8:14
I. Consider the statements of the text in their primary reference to Israel and Judah, showing their application in spirit to ourselves. (1) Those whom God originally called to be one, whom He consolidated into a Church, making them His family and people, are now two; they are split and divided into contending factions. (2) Notice the different conduct by which the two parties in the text were distinguished. Israel builds temples. Judah multiplies fenced cities. Israel fell from and corrupted the primitive institutions of Divine worship. Judah put her trust, not in what God had promised to do for her, but in herself. The people had the form of godliness without the power. While they approached God with their lips, their hearts were far from Him; they bowed in His temple, but they trusted in themselves. (3) The conduct of Israel and Judah, though so different, was alike bad; in each case it proceeded from the same sinful source; against both the judgments of God were equally denounced.
II. Notice a few practical lessons from the subject. (1) Religion is the most powerful thing in the world. (2) This power, the strongest in itself over the human mind, is exposed by the heart to the greatest perversion, and that in various and opposite directions. (3) The liability of religion to corruption, and the power and tendency of men to corrupt it, are no presumption against the reality of religion in general, or against the truth of Christianity in particular. (4) While large masses of the professing Church may seem to be characterized by particular and obvious forms of error, we should always remember that many individuals in each mass may not be involved in the surrounding corruption. (5) It is highly important for us to consider what may be the tendency of any Church system with which we are connected, and to examine narrowly into our own spirit or temper.
T. Binney, Sermons in King’s Weighhouse Chapel, 2nd series, p. 267.
References: Hos 10:2.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. v., No. 276; Ibid., My Sermon Notes: Ecclesiastes to Malachi, p. 315; Ibid., p. 318. Hos 10:12.-Ibid., Sermons, vol. xxi., No. 1261; vol. xxvi., No. 1563; Ibid., Evening by Evening, p. 92; E. Blencowe, Plain Sermons to a Country Congregation, 2nd series, p. 281. Hos 11:1.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxviii., No. 1675. Hos 11:3.-Ibid., vol. xvii., No. 1021.
Fuente: The Sermon Bible
CHAPTER 8:1-9:9
The Apostasy is Followed by Judgment
1. The judgment announced (Hos 8:1-7)
2. The apostasy which resulted in judgment (Hos 8:8-14)
3. Warning against self-security (Hos 9:1-9)
Hos 8:1-7. The prophet is commanded to sound the alarm of the impending judgment. The message is that the enemy will come swift as an eagle upon the house of the Lord, which here does not mean the temple (which was in connection with Judah), but Israel as the chosen people was the house, the dwelling-place of the Lord. All their spurious profession, their false claim, My God, we know Thee, we, Israel, will go for nothing, because they transgressed the covenant and the law. The obnoxious thing they did is stated in Hos 9:4. They had separated themselves from Judah and chosen their own kings and princes in self will, thus putting themselves outside of the theocracy; idolatry speedily followed. In Bethel they had erected the worship of the calf, the great abomination in the sight of the Lord. He rejects their corrupt worship, and ere long the calf of Samaria will be broken to pieces, like the golden calf their fathers made in the wilderness. They sowed the wind and the whirlwind would be the harvest (Hos 10:13; Hos 12:2; Job 4:8; Pro 22:8). They sowed vanity and evil; the tempest of destruction would be their reaping. What they sowed would not yield fruit at all. The Hebrew contains a play of words, Tsemach brings no Quernach, which may be rendered, shoot brings no fruit.
Hos 8:8-14. Israel had been swallowed up by the nations, that is, by mingling with them. By their doings they have become like a despised vessel. Their sin was going up to Assyria, like a wild ass, suing there for love and favor. They were like a stubborn brute going there by itself. Ephraim was even worse than the stubborn ass. They formed unnatural alliances with the Gentiles. There they gave presents, hiring lovers, literally rendered, Ephraim gave presents of love to practice her whoredoms. They forgot their Creator, God; their sacrifices Jehovah despised. Therefore the judgment.
Hos 9:1-9. Under the reign of Jeroboam II Israel enjoyed great prosperity. It seems they had a bountiful harvest, corn and wine was in abundance. They gave themselves over to feasting and rejoicing. It was at such an occasion when the Lord sent this warning against their own security. Their captivity is announced where they would eat things unclean and feast days will no longer be possible. Then the prophet beholds them as already in the Assyrian captivity. They went away and turned towards the south to escape the sure destruction. But Egypt will gather them, Memphis will bury them. Their precious things of silver will give way to thistles and thorns. The day of visitation was at hand; their iniquities are remembered and their sins will be visited.
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
the trumpet: Hos 5:8, Isa 18:3, Isa 58:1, Jer 4:5, Jer 6:1, Jer 51:27, Eze 7:14, Eze 33:3-6, Joe 2:1, Joe 2:15, Amo 3:6, Zep 1:16, Zec 9:14, 1Co 15:52
thy mouth: Heb. the roof of thy mouth
as: Deu 28:49, Jer 4:13, Jer 48:40, Hab 1:8, Mat 24:28
the house: Hos 9:15, 2Ki 18:27, Amo 8:3, Amo 9:1, Zec 11:1
transgressed: Hos 6:7, Isa 24:5, Jer 31:32, Eze 16:59, Heb 8:8-13
Reciprocal: Lev 11:13 – the eagle Num 10:2 – the calling Deu 17:2 – in transgressing Job 39:27 – the eagle Psa 78:37 – stedfast Jer 2:2 – cry Jer 6:17 – Hearken Jer 11:10 – the house of Israel Jer 34:18 – have transgressed Jer 49:22 – he shall Lam 4:19 – persecutors Eze 11:4 – General Eze 16:2 – cause Eze 17:3 – A great Hos 10:10 – and the Zec 5:9 – for Mat 6:2 – do not sound a trumpet Act 2:14 – lifted Rev 14:7 – with
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Hos 8:1. The pronouns in this verse represent three different nouns; they are the people of Israel, the Assyrians and the Lord. A trumpet was used as an alarm of war (Num 10:9). and the statement is used figuratively as a prediction. He shall come means the Assyrian army shall come against the land. This will be according to the decree of the Lord to punish Israel because they have transgressed my covenant, and trespassed against my (the Lord’s) law.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Hos 8:1. Set the trumpet to thy mouth The Vulgate renders it, In guttere tuo sit tuba; that is, Let thy throat, or mouth, sound like a trumpet. God speaks in these words, says Grotius, to the prophet, and commands him to proclaim, with a very loud voice, both the sins of the people, and the evils about to come upon them. He shall come as an eagle against the house of the Lord The words, he shall come, are not in the Hebrew, and seem to be improperly supplied by the translators; the sense of the words appearing to be, that the prophet should warn the people, and denounce the judgments of God against them for their sins, with a voice so loud that it might be heard as far as the cry of the eagle, flying over, or sitting upon, the top of the temple. Because they have transgressed Or rather, that they have transgressed my covenant. Hoc enim ipsum est quod proclamari vult Deus; for this is the thing which God commanded to be proclaimed. Grotius. Namely, that they had transgressed against Gods covenant, and violated his law.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Hos 8:1. Set the trumpet to thy mouth. Give alarm, for the king of Assyria is coming; he is stretching his wings like an eagle to take the prey. Isaiah uses the same figure, in Isa 58:1.
Against the house of the Lord, the temple in Jerusalem. After Samaria shall have fallen under his power, then Judea shall fall, because she also has utterly transgressed the covenant by idols.
Hos 8:4. They have set up kings, but not by me, This refers to the later kings of the ten tribes, for Jeroboam was promised the kingdom, if he would remain faithful to the true worship of the Lord. Jehu and others had a similar promise. The Lord being himself the great shepherd, ought to be consulted in the election of governors and princes.
Hos 8:5. Thy calf, oh Samaria, hath cast thee off. Complaint is made in Hos 8:3, that they had cast off the Lord. Now in times of trouble, their calf could do nothing for them. It would seem from this apostrophe, that Samaria had a golden calf at the head of her idols. See on Exo 32:4.
Hos 8:12. I have written to him the great things of my law. They had the five books of Moses, but counted the law a strange thing. Very great and holy prophets fought hard battles for the Lord, but the priests and the princes disregarded them. Idolatry was too much enrooted to be eradicated by the prophets; therefore the Lord cut it down with the sword.
Hos 8:14. I will send a fire upon his cities. This was kindled by the Chaldean army, as we read in Jer 52:13, and 2 Chronicles 36. These were the flames that extinguished the fire of Baals altars. When they forsook the Lord, they trusted their safety to fenced cities.
REFLECTIONS.
Here the man of God appears clothed with his proper character. He knew his master, he knew his mission, he knew how to magnify his ministry. The boldness of his figures, the force of his words, the terrors of his address, are worthy of Him that sent him.
He came not to Ephraims feasts; he blew the trumpet of war, he spread the banners of the Lord. The priest, the prince, the calves of Dan and Bethel trembled at his voice. He impeached them in their own court, and before their idol gods. He impeached them with having elected kings, not of Gods anointing; with despising his law, with offering to Baal the victims which belonged to Jehovah: sacrilege loathsome in the eyes of heaven.
While he blew the trumpet with one hand, he pointed with the other to the golden eagle of the east, already stretching out his wings for flight, and preparing to roost in the summits of Lebanon. And what could their helpless calves do against the eagle of the forest, and the lion of the thicket?
He deplores the condition of Ephraim, drunk with wine, feasting with his calves, and dancing before the altars of Baal. He rebukes their imbecility, sending gifts and embassies to the king of Assyria, who is like a wild unsocial ass, seeking solely his own pasture. This was in effect a renunciation of the Lord, as one that could not save. Their sorrows and complaints were unavailing, like the moanings of a silly dove, begging her life in the eagles claws.
Oh Ephraim: alas for Ephraim! Now become like the worthless shoars of earthenware, about to be scattered back to Egypt, and to other nations; and her fractures so disjoined as never to be restored again.
Oh let not my heart be like that of Ephraim, resting for a time in carnal ease. Let me hear the trumpet, and prepare to meet my God. Let me not cast off thy law, nor slight thy ministers, nor join in the drunkards song. Let me learn true wisdom from Israels folly. Let me contemplate thy dealings with the Hebrew nation, as the grand theatre of providence, for the instruction of all future ages.
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Hos 7:8 to Hos 8:3. Political Decay the Outward Sign of Israels Moral Decay.The attempts to cure national ills and secure safety by foreign aid, instead of by turning to Yahweh, are foredoomed to failure; Yahweh Himself frustrates them and will bring the misguided people to punishment and ruin (Hos 7:8-12). Their doom is sealed, for they have been disloyal to Yahweh; they do not turn to Him with a true heart, but use heathen devices (cut themselves, Hos 7:14 mg., see p. 110) when they appeal to Him. Their shallow hearts are incapable of real and acceptable repentance; therefore their princes shall fall by the sword, and this shall be their derision in the land of Egypt (Hos 7:13-16). The inevitable judgment is devastating war, which their appeals to Him shall not avert (Hos 8:1-3).
Hos 7:8. mixeth himself: i.e. dissipates his national strength and character by intermingling with the Gentiles. Another possible rendering is withereth away among, etc. The cake is the flat, round cake of bread, which was baked on hot stones or ashes (cf. 1Ki 19:6), and which, if not frequently turned, would be burnt. It may be an emblem of a country half ruined by war, or of the peoples fickle and inconstant character and achievement (cf. our half-baked).
Hos 7:9. The signs of national decreptitude are unheeded.
Hos 7:10. Perhaps a gloss; cf. Hos 5:5.
Hos 7:11. The inconstancies of national policy are another mark of weakness (the reference need not be to rival Egyptian and Assyrian parties in Israel). Note the striking and original figure.
Hos 7:12. By seeking foreign alliances they walk into a net.I will chastise . . . heard: read, I will bind them because of their wickedness (cf. LXX).
Hos 7:13 b. Better as an indignant question: And Ishould I redeem them when, etc.
Hos 7:14. upon their beds is difficult (text probably corrupt): On account of their . . . is required.assemble themselves: read as mg. and cf. 1Ki 18:28, Deu 14:1.
Hos 7:15. Omit taught and (cf. LXX).strengthened their arms: cf. 2Ki 14:27.
Hos 7:16 a. Cf. Hos 11:7. Read perhaps, return to the Baal (or Baalim).for . . . tongue: i.e. their insolence towards God (but text doubtful). The rest of Hos 7:16, if genuine, must refer to some unknown incidents.
Hos 8:1 a. Lit. to thy palate the cornet! (God addresses the prophet).an eagle: the Assyrian may be meant.
Hos 8:2. Omit Israel with LXX.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
8:1 [Set] the trumpet to thy {a} mouth. [He shall come] as an eagle against the house of the LORD, because they have transgressed my covenant, and trespassed against my law.
(a) God encourages the Prophet to signify the speedy coming of the enemy against Israel, which was once the people of God.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Making idols 8:1-7
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
The Lord commanded Hosea to announce coming judgment by telling him to put a trumpet to his lips. The blowing of the shophar announced that an invader was coming (cf. Hos 5:8). Israel’s enemy would swoop down on the nation as an eagle attacking its prey (cf. Hos 5:14; Deu 28:49). The "house of the LORD" refers to the people of Israel, His household. The reason for this judgment was Israel’s transgression (overstepping) of Yahweh’s covenant (the Mosaic Covenant) and the nation’s rebellion against His Law (the Mosaic Law; cf. Hos 7:13).
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
6
1. THE CONFUSION OF THE NATION
Hos 7:8-16; Hos 8:1-3
Hosea begins by summing up the public aspect of Israel in two epigrams, short but of marvelous adequacy:-{Hos 7:8}
“Ephraim-among the nations he mixeth himself:
Ephraim has become a cake not turned.”
It is a great crisis for any nation to pass from the seclusion of its youth and become a factor in the main history of the world. But for Israel the crisis was trebly great. Their difference from all other tribes about them had struck the Canaanites on their first entry to the land; {Num 23:9 b; Jos 2:8} their own earliest writers had emphasized their seclusion as their strength; {Deu 33:27} and their first prophets consistently deprecated every overture made by them either to Egypt or to Assyria. We feel the force of the prophets policy when we remember what happened to the Philistines. These were a people as strong and as distinctive as Israel, with whom at one time they disputed possession of the whole land. But their position as traders in the main line of traffic between Asia and Africa rendered the Philistines peculiarly open to foreign influence. They were now Egyptian vassals, now Assyrian victims; and after the invasion of Alexander the Great their cities became centers of Hellenism, while the Jews upon their secluded hills still stubbornly held unmixed their race and their religion. This contrast, so remarkably developed in later centuries, has justified the prophets of the eighth in their anxiety that Israel should not annul the advantages of her geographical seclusion by trade or treaties with the Gentiles. But it was easier for Judaea to take heed to the warning than for Ephraim. The latter lies as open and fertile as her sister province is barren and aloof. She has many gates into the world, and they open upon many markets. Nobler opportunities there could not be for a nation in the maturity of its genius and loyal to its vocation:-
“Rejoice, O Zebulun, in thine outgoings:
They shall call the nations to the mountain;
They shall suck of the abundance of the seas
And of the treasure that is stored in the sands.” {Deu 33:18-19}
But in the time of his outgoings Ephraim was not sure of himself nor true to his God, the one secret and strength of the national distinctiveness. So he met the world weak and unformed, and, instead of impressing it, was by it dissipated and confused. The tides of a lavish commerce scattered abroad the faculties of the people, and swept back upon their life alien fashions and tempers, to subdue which there was neither native strength nor definiteness of national purpose. All this is what Hosea means by the first of his epigrams: “Ephraim-among the nations he lets himself be poured out,” or “mixed up.” The form of the verb does not elsewhere occur; but it is reflexive, and the meaning of the root is certain. “Balal” is to “pour out,” or “mingle,” as of oil in the sacrificial flour. Yet it is sometimes used of a mixing which is not sacred, but profane and hopeless. It is applied to the first great confusion of mankind, to which a popular etymology has traced the name Babel, as if for Balbel. Derivatives of the stem bear the additional ideas of staining and impurity. The alternative renderings which have been proposed, “lets himself be soaked” and “scatters himself” abroad like wheat among tares, are not so probable, yet hardly change the meaning.
Ephraim wastes and confuses himself among the Gentiles. The nations character is so disguised that Hosea afterwards nicknames him Canaan {Hos 12:8} their religion so filled with foreign influences that he calls the people the harlot of the Baalim.
If the first of Hoseas epigrams satirizes Israels foreign relations, the second, with equal brevity and wit, hits off the temper and constitution of society at home. For the metaphor of which this epigram is composed Hosea has gone to the baker. Among all classes in the East, especially under conditions requiring haste, there is in demand a round flat scone, which is baked by being laid on hot stones or attached to the wall of a heated oven. The whole art of baking consists in turning the scone over at the proper moment. If this be mismanaged it does not need a baker to tell us that one side may be burnt to a cinder, while the other remains raw. “Ephraim,” says Hosea, “is an unturned cake.”
By this he may mean one of several things, or all of them together, for they are infectious of each other. There was, for instance, the social conditions of the people. What can better be described as an unturned scone than a community one half of whose number are too rich, and the other too poor? Or Hosea may refer to that unequal distribution of religion through life with which in other parts of his prophecy he reproaches Israel. They keep their religion, as Amos more fully tells us, for their temples, and neglect to carry its spirit into their daily business. Or he may refer to Israels politics, which were equally in want of thoroughness. They rushed hotly at an enterprise, but having expended so much fire in the beginning of it, they let the end drop cold and dead. Or he may wish to satirize, like Amos, Israels imperfect culture-the pretentious and overdone arts, stuck excrescence-wise upon the unrefined bulk of the nation, just as in many German principalities last century society took on a few French fashions in rough and exaggerated forms, while at heart still brutal and coarse. Hosea may mean any one of these things, for the figure suits all, and all spring from the same defect. Want of thoroughness and equable effort was Israels besetting sin, and it told on all sides of his life. How better describe a half-fed people, a half-cultured society, a half-lived religion, a half-hearted policy, than by a half-baked scone?
We who are so proud of our political bakers, we who scorn the rapid revolutions of our neighbors and complacently dwell upon our equable ovens, those slow and cautious centuries of political development which lie behind us-have we anything better than our neighbors, anything better than Israel, to show in our civilization? Hoseas epigram fits us to the letter. After all those ages of baking, society is still with us “an unturned scone”: one end of the nation with the strength burnt out of it by too much enjoyment of life, the other with not enough of warmth to be quickened into anything like adequate vitality. No man can deny that this is so; we are able to live only by shutting our hearts to the fact. Or is religion equally distributed through the lives of the religious portion of our nation? Of late years religion has spread, and spread wonderfully, but of how many Christians is it still true that they are but half-baked-living a life one side of which is reeking with the smoke of sacrifice, while the other is never warmed by one religious thought. We may have too much religion if we confine it to one day or one department of life: our worship overdone, with the sap and the freshness burnt out of it, cindery, dusty, unattractive, fit only for crumbling; our conduct cold, damp, and heavy, like dough the fire has never reached.
Upon the theme of these two epigrams the other verses of this chapter are variations. Has Ephraim mixed himself among the peoples? “Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knoweth it not,” senselessly congratulating himself upon the increase of his trade and wealth, while he does not feel that these have sucked from him all his distinctive virtue. “Yea, grey hairs are sprinkled upon him, and he knoweth it not.” He makes his energy the measure of his life, as Isaiah also marked, {Hos 9:9 f.} but sees not that it all means waste and decay. “The pride of Israel testifieth to his face, yet”-even when the pride of the nation is touched to the quick by such humiliating overtures as they make to both Assyria and Egypt-“they do not return to Jehovah their God, nor seek Him for all this.”
With virtue and single-hearted faith have disappeared intellect and the capacity for affairs. “Ephraim is become like a silly dove-a dove without heart,” to the Hebrews the organ of the wits of a man-“they cry to Egypt, they go off to Assyria.” Poor pigeon of a people, fluttering from one refuge to another! But “as they go I will throw over them My net, like a bird of the air I will bring them down. I will punish them as their congregation have heard”-this text as it stands: can only mean “in the manner I have publicly proclaimed in Israel.” “Woe to them that they have strayed from Me! Damnation to them that they have rebelled against Me! While I would have redeemed them they spoke lies about Me. And they have never cried unto Me with their heart, but they keep howling from their beds for corn and new wine.” No real repentance theirs, but some fear of drought and miscarriage of the harvests, a sensual and servile sorrow in which they wallow. They seek God with no heart, no true appreciation of what He is, but use the senseless means by which the heathen invoke their gods: “they cut themselves, and “so “apostatize from Me! And yet it was I who disciplined them, I strengthened their arm, but with regard to Me they kept thinking” only “evil!” So fickle and sensitive to fear, “they turn” indeed “but not upwards”; no Godward conversion theirs. In their repentance “they are like a bow which swerves” off upon some impulse of their ill-balanced natures. “Their princes must fall by the sword because of the bitterness”-we should have expected “falseness”-“of their tongue: this is their scorn in the land of Egypt!” To the allusion we have no key.
With so false a people nothing can be done. Their doom is inevitable. So
“Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war.”
“To thy mouth with the trumpet! The Eagle is down upon the house of Jehovah!” Where the carcass is, there are the eagles gathered together. “For”-to sum up the whole crisis-“they have transgressed My covenant, and against My law have they rebelled. To Me they cry, My God, we know Thee, we Israeli” What does it matter? “Israel hath spurned the good: the Foe must pursue him.”
It is the same climax of inevitable war to which Amos led up his periods; and a new subject is now introduced.