14<\/strong>. Therefore<\/em> ] i.e. because, without Jehovah’s help, Israel will never come to herself, and reform (comp. Isa 30:18<\/span>). Her punishment has an educational object; the threat has a tinge of promise.<\/p>\n I will allure her<\/em> ] The pronoun is expressed in the Hebrew. I<\/em> have not forgotten her, though she has forgotten me. ‘Allure her’ seems out of place in introducing the punishment; generally the exile is described as an expulsion (comp. Jer 8:3<\/span>). Either we must read differently; the LXX. has (comp. Psa 107:40<\/span>), or we must suppose a violation of natural order such as occurs now and then in Hebrew, so that the ‘alluring’ may refer to the cordial address of Jehovah spoken of afterwards. Kimchi explains, ‘I will put into her heart to return, while she is yet in exile.’ How beautifully the promise anticipates the great prophecy of Israel’s restoration, which opens, remarkably enough, with the very phrase used by Hosea, ‘Speak ye to the heart of Jerusalem’ (Isa 40:2<\/span>). [According to another explanation of the passage which goes back to St Jerome, the wilderness is not only a place of affliction, but one of hope. The latter sense seems to be opposed by a passage in Ezekiel (Eze 20:33-38<\/span>) which is evidently a reminiscence of our passage, and which refers to the wilderness exclusively as a place of punishment. Keil, on the other hand, thinks that Israel is to be led into the wilderness, not for punishment, but for deliverance from bondage. This certainly explains the ‘I will allure<\/em> her,’ but is not consistent with the next verse, in which allusion is made to the punishment undergone in the wilderness. Comp. on. Hos 13:10<\/span>.]<\/p>\n into the wilderness<\/em> ] By ‘wilderness’ Hosea means not merely the desert which lay between Canaan and the land of captivity, but the captivity or exile itself. Sojourn in a heathen land appeared to pious Israelites like a wandering in the desert (comp. Isa 41:17<\/span>).<\/p>\n speak comfortably unto her<\/em> ] Lit., ‘speak unto her heart’.<\/p>\n 14 23<\/strong>. And now the notes of threatening are dying away; bright and glorious days are announced for both sections of the nation. There shall be a second Exodus; no more idolatry; no more war; no. cloud upon Israel’s relation to her God. (Notice in passing the limitations of this stage of religious knowledge; the Messianic hope is as yet confined entirely to the people of Israel.)<\/p>\n Therefore – <\/B>The inference is not what we should have expected. Sin and forgetfulness of God are not the natural causes of, and inducements to mercy. But God deals not with us, as we act one to another. Extreme misery and degradation revolt man; mans miseries invite Gods mercies. God therefore has mercy, not because we deserve it, but because we need it. He therefore draws us, because we are so deeply sunken. He prepareth the soul by those harder means, and then the depths of her misery cry to the depths of His compassion, and because chastisement alone would stupify her, not melt her, He changes His wrath into mercy, and speaks to the heart which, for her salvation, He has broken.<\/P> I will allure her – <\/B>The original word is used of one readily enticed, as a simple one, whether to good or ill. God uses, as it were, Satans weapons against himself. As Satan had enticed the soul to sin, so would God, by holy enticements and persuasiveness, allure her to Himself. God too hath sweetnesses for the penitent soul, far above all the sweetnesses of present earthly joys; much more, above the bitter sweetnesses of sin.<\/P> I Myself will allure her – <\/B>(Such is the emphasis). God would show her something of His Beauty, and make her taste of His Love, and give her some such glimpse of the joy of His good-pleasure, as should thrill her and make her, all her life long, follow after what had, as through the clouds, opened upon her.<\/P> And will bring her into the wilderness – <\/B>God, when he brought Israel out of Egypt, led her apart from the pressure of her hard bondage, the sinful self-indulgences of Egypt and the abominations of their idolatries, into the wilderness, and there, away from the evil examples of the nation from which he drew her and of those whom she was to dispossess, He gave her His law, and taught her His worship, and brought her into covenant with Himself (see Eze 20:34-36<\/span>). So in the beginning of the Gospel, Christ allured souls by His goodness in His miracles, and the tenderness of His words, and the sweetness of His preaching and His promises, and the attractiveness of His sufferings, and the mighty manifestations of His Spirit. So is it with each penitent soul. God, by privation or suffering, turns her from her idols, from the turmoil of the world and its distractions, and speaks, Alone to her alone.<\/P> And speak to her heart – <\/B>Literally, on her heart, making an impression on it, soothing it, in words which will dwell in it, and rest there. Thus within, not without, He putteth His laws in the mind, and writeth them in the heart, not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God Heb 8:10<\/U><\/span>; 2Co 3:3<\/span>. God speaks to the heart, so as to reach it, soften it, comfort it, tranquilize it, and, at the last, assure it. He shall speak to her, not as in Sinai, amid blackness and darkness and tempest, and the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words, which voice they that heard intreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more Heb 12:18-19<\/span>, but to the heart. But it is in solitude that he so speaks to the soul and is heard by her, warning, reproving, piercing, penetrating through every fold, until he reaches the very inmost heart and dwells there. And then he infuseth hope of pardon, kindleth love, enlighteneth faith, giveth feelings of child-like trust, lifteth the soul tremblingly to cleave to Him whose voice she has heard within her. Then His infinite Beauty touches the heart; His Holiness, Truth, mercy, penetrate the soul; in silence and stillness the soul learns to know itself and God, to repent of its sins, to conquer self; to meditate on God. Come out from among them and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you 2Co 6:17<\/span>.<\/P> : Search we the Scriptures, and we shall find, that seldom or never hath God spoken in a multitude; but so often as he would have anything known to man, He shewed Himself, not to nations or people, but to individuals, or to very few, and those severed from the common concourse of people, or in the silence of the night, in fields or solitudes, in mountains or vallies. Thus He spake with Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Samuel, David, and all the prophets. Why is it, God always speaketh in secret, except that He would call us apart? Why speaketh He with a few, except to collect and gather us into one? In this solitude doth God speak to the soul, from the beginning of its conversion to the loneliness of death. Here the soul, which, overspread with darkness, knew neither God nor itself, learns with a pure heart to know God. Here, placed aloft, she sees all earthly things flee away beneath her, yea, herself also passing away in the sweeping tide of all passing things. Here she learns, and so unlearns her sins, sees and hates herself, sees and loves God. : Only the solitude of the body availeth not, unless there be the solitude of the heart. And if God so speak to the penitent, much more to souls, who consecrate themselves wholly, cleave wholly to Him, meditate on Him. By His presence , the soul is renewed, and cleaving, as it were, to Him, feels the sweetness of an inward taste, spiritual understanding, enlightening of faith, increase of hope, feeling of compassion, zeal for righteousness, delight in virtue. She hath in orison familiar converse with God, feeling that she is heard, and mostly answered: speaking face to face with God, and bearing what God speaketh in her, constraining God in prayer and sometimes prevailing.<\/P> <\/p>\n Hos 2:14-15<\/span><\/p>\n I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably to her.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n Allure<\/strong><\/p>\n The original word is used of one readily enticed, as a simple one, whether to good or ill. God uses, as it were, Satans weapons against himself. As Satan had enticed the soul to sin, so would God, by holy enticements and persuasiveness, allure her to Himself. God, too, hath sweetness for the penitent soul far above all the sweetness of present joys, much more above the bitter sweetness of sin. (E. B. Pusey, D. D.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Gods presence in loneliness<\/strong><\/p>\n From the first dawning of conversion to the hour of death, it is in solitude mostly that God speaks to the soul. Here God spoke by His prophet to a nation which, like ourselves, had, in its prosperity, multiplied its idols, made gold and silver into gods to worship, had been unfaithful to its God, and abused His gifts. Of such God says, I will allure her. He vouchsafes to speak to us after the manner of men. He will give us, He saith, love for love. He speaks as we may best bear to hear, and is fittest for us. Blessed are those holy hours in which the soul retires from the world to be alone with God. Gods voice, as Himself, is everywhere. Only the din of the world, or the tumult of our own hearts, deafens our inward ear to it. Chiefly in the inmost soul He speaks, because there He dwells. To be alone is to feel the presence of God, in love or in displeasure, as a friend or a stranger. Until the soul will open its whole self to God, it shrinks from inward and outward loneliness. We must be alone in the hour of death, let us learn to be alone with God now. It is only afar off that the wilderness looks a waste, and terrible and dry. Until, in silence, ye enter into that sacred loneliness, ye know not whither ye are going. In loneliness a man knows himself and his God. Enter thou with Him, and by His grace, thou wilt not come forth as thou goest in. Cherished sin alone deafens us to the voice of God. (E. B. Pusey, D. D.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Christ allures to the wilderness<\/strong><\/p>\n Apply these words to ourselves, as setting before us the way Almighty God will work upon our souls to bring us to repentance, or to a deeper knowledge of His ways.<\/p>\n Gods free grace<\/strong><\/p>\n Therefore, because she will not be restrained by the denunciations of wrath, God will try whether she will be wrought upon by the offers of mercy. The design is plainly to magnify free grace to those on whom God will have mercy purely for mercys sake. (Matthew Henry.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Gods wise and tender love to His people<\/strong><\/p>\n In the Old Testament we see the struggle between the Divine love and the perverse human will. God will ever impose restraints and place barriers in the way of sin, and so would make sin difficult and painful. In addition to conscience, the inward monitor, there are outward checks placed by God to hinder men from the commission of sin. Toil is a restraint. It is a bit and bridle to the wayward and the vicious. The wave of prosperity often leaves behind it the rubbish and foam of licentiousness. Pain is also a restraint. There is pleasure in sin. It is not real, it is not enduring, but there it is, and the sinner is attracted by it. The forbidden tree is pleasant to the eyes. The sinfulness of sin may be inferred from its bitter consequences. Pain is a moral word. It implies punishment. It is the penalty of sin, it is therefore a restraint. But God not only checks, He draws.<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>Solitude. A man must get out of the crowd in order to think. Men living in a crowd become mere echoes. In solitude man discovers himself, and realises the presence of God, and these involve a burden of personal responsibility.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>Trouble. Chastisement was, and still is, the necessary discipline for Gods children. Why does God correct them? To make them feel that sin is terribly hateful. And He shews us the tendency of sin.<\/p>\n 3. <\/strong>Preparation. The training of the wilderness was necessary. Had they entered Canaan at once, they would have been unfit to take possession of it. God brings us into the wilderness in order to develop our character. The faith that will stand in the storm is the faith that has been tried.<\/p>\n Mercy, troubles, and end of the Church<\/strong><\/p>\n And I will give her her vineyards from thence<\/strong>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n Gods dealings with His Church<\/strong><\/p>\n The Church of God means that blessed company of true believers in Christ, and true and faithful servants of God the Father, who are living by the influences of the Holy Spirit, a life of genuine devotedness to God and His Christ–whose religion is that of the Gospel, and who adorn that Gospel in all things–whose affections are set on the things which are above–who seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness–who are living as pilgrims and strangers on earth, and who are looking for a city which hath foundations. These, however dispersed, form one body. Of this Church the Jewish nation was a type and representative. In considering such a passage as the text, it becomes us to exercise a sober discretion, lest we wander into the regions of fancy. We may view it as representing.<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>He allures them by the most gracious invitations, to turn to Him with penitence and prayer. God is love; and amongst the many proofs of this, are the gracious invitations by which He allures His rebellious creatures to seek His face.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>To these invitations the Lord adds the most encouraging assurances to all who will seek His mercy, forgiveness of their sins, and acceptance with Him. But the Lord does more than this. He not only gently raises the desire of His favour, but He power fully strengthens and confirms it–He brings her into the wilderness. Some suppose this refers to the love of solitude and retirement as affording opportunity for more unrestricted communion with God. Others consider it as alluding to those various afflictive dispensations which are often the means employed by God in leading His people to the living fountains of waters. May we not regard them as denoting more especially that state of spiritual distress into which God in mercy brings the sinner? The Lord brings His believing people into the wilderness of conviction of sin and godly repentance. Conviction leads to consolation, and repentance prepares the new-born soul for the reception of the Saviour. No language can describe the comfort which springs in the heart of the convinced and contrite sinner from the assurance that the door of mercy is not yet closed against him, and that there is a fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness. Then, indeed, he has reason for blessing God in that He has brought him into the wilderness.<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>I <\/em>will give her her vineyards, rich blessings and privileges. Through the wilderness is the road to the vineyards. He gives the privileges of children. He gives His Holy Spirit. He gives them peace passing understanding–joy and peace in believing.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>He gives also the <\/em>valley of Achor for a door of hope. The present comforts and privileges of Gods people are pledges and foretastes of future and more enlarged felicity, an exceeding and eternal weight of glory. (John Vaughan, LL. B.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Wilderness-blessings<\/strong><\/p>\n I will do it, says God. Observe the richness of the supply. Not her corn, which is for necessity; or grapes, which are for delight; or even a vine; but a vineyard. God concerns Him self not only with our safety, our welfare, our relief, our enjoyment; He would even fill us with all joy and peace in believing. Observe the strange way in which these indulgences are to be communicated. From whence are these supplies to come? From a wilderness. Who would expect to find the vineyards of Engedi in a wilderness?<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>Earth is a wilderness. It was not designed to be. The ground is cursed for mans sake. By one man sin entered into the world. But to the Christian the curse is turned into a blessing. He has not only before him a land of promise, but even now, even here, he has a thousand alleviations and succours, and even delights.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>Solitude is a wilderness. There is not only much to be done alone, but gained alone, and enjoyed alone. There we gain our best knowledge and our richest experience. There we enjoy the freedom of prayer and the most unreserved intercourse with God. They are never less alone than when alone.<\/p>\n 3. <\/strong>Outward trouble is a wilderness. Many have been afraid to be brought into it, yet He has given them their vineyards from thence. They have been saved by their undoing, and enriched by their losses.<\/p>\n 4. <\/strong>The state of mind produced by the conviction of sin is a wilderness. Who does not remember the surprise, the confusion of mind, the anguish, the self-despair he once felt; and who can forget the feelings induced by a discovery of the Cross, and the joy of Gods salvation!<\/p>\n 5. <\/strong>The same may be said of that soul abase ment and distress the believer himself may feel from increasing views of his unworthiness, depravity, and guilt. The experience is truly lamentable, but will the humiliation hurt him? He giveth grace unto the humble.<\/p>\n 6. <\/strong>The valley of the shadow of death is the last wilderness. There is much to render it uninviting and awful; and yet, when it has been actually entered, the apprehension and the gloom have fled: This has been the case generally, even with those who arc most subject to bondage by the fear of it. The place has been made glad for them. And what vineyards does He give them from thence! <\/em>(William Jay.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Vineyards instead of vines<\/strong><\/p>\n He had destroyed her vines (Hos 2:12<\/span>), but now He will give her whole vineyards; as if for every vine destroyed she should have a vineyard restored, and so be repaid with interest; she shall not only have corn for necessity, but vineyards for delight. These denote the privileges and comforts of the Gospel. Note that God has vineyards of consolation ready to bestow on those who repent and turn to Him; and He can give vineyards out of a wilderness, which are of all others the most welcome, as rest to the weary. (Matthew Henry.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Desert discipline<\/strong><\/p>\n The age of Hosea was one of great material prosperity, and one of deplorable spiritual decay. The time was at hand when prosperity was to end and privation begin. It is in view of the times coming that Hosea brings his message. And his message is a mingled one. He speaks of judgment impending, and of sin as the cause of it. Yet he has his tale of mercy. The very penalties announced by him have their side of mercy. Whether God wooed the sinful nation by means of His goodness, or chastised them by His righteous severities, He had the same end in view for them–their recovery to Himself, and it was only because the one mode had failed that the other began. The text is more than the tale of Gods dealings with Israel: it is the tale of His discipline with the Church, and with individual souls, as many as have forgotten their first love, proved false to their calling, played truant from their God.<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>Blessings in possession. Of the self-same kind as the blessings which the bride had lost. God took away the vines. He grants vines again, and more abundant. Whether our wilderness discipline has its issue in temporal restorations or not, it may always be rich in spiritual blessing. There are grapes of grace to be gathered from the thorns of trial, and a meeting with Christ is always sufficient to turn the wilderness to a vineyard, where the chalice of the soul may be filled, and the strength of the soul be renewed by the fulness and exhilarations of God.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>Blessings in prospect. Achor was a passage into Canaan. Fertile in itself, it was welcome to Israel as an earnest of the greater fertility of Canaan beyond. By its physical formation the valley of Achor was, in a most literal sense, a door of hope in front of the Israelites.<\/p>\n The profit of affliction<\/strong><\/p>\n The Jews are to be regarded as a typical people. Their history is all along a parable more or less descriptive of what befalls the Christian Church, whether collectively or in its individual members. The text belongs in a special sense to the Jew. It may, however, be taken in a secondary sense. Notice the expression allure. We are often actually allured into the wilderness. You may enter the wilderness by a rough path, or by a smooth path. In the majority of cases men are allured into the wilderness. It is in a chase after happiness that men find themselves lonely and wretched. He who follows what attracts him, and finds it end in disappointment, is certainly allured into the wilderness. There is hardly a person under affliction of which this is not a faithful description. God allures, not that He may speak harshly, but that He may speak comfortably. The text declares that afflictions may be made occasions of advantage, or be converted into instruments of spiritual benefit. We may appeal concerning the gracious uses of affliction to the living and to the dead. With one voice they will reply,–that their best lessons in spiritual truth, their clearest views of the glory of heaven, their largest apprehensions of the work of the Mediator, their fullest proofs of the preciousness of God, were all acquired under processes of chastening. From the reference to the valley of Achor we may learn that sorrows which are specially the chastisement of misdoings may issue in a firmer hope of salvation. The valley of Achor is a door of hope. It is when a man is quite confounded with the view of his own sins that he is fitted for the gracious announcement of a free pardon through Christ. The figure applies to cases of conversion and renewal of heart, and also to cases of backsliding. (Henry Mevill, B. D.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The loving discipline of God<\/strong><\/p>\n This is the language of metaphor, borrowed from the facts of history. God is in all history. In the history of Israel He manifested Himself in an especial manner. In the Old Testament the historical passes readily into the typical. When Hosea wrote the children of Israel were once more sunk in idolatry. They were forgetting Jehovah and yielding themselves up to the self-indulgences and immoralities of heathen life. But the principles of Divine government were the same as ever. God made them feel that the land of sin is the land of bondage. He would cause them to experience the miseries that flow from idolatry. Then He would come to their rescue and reveal His compassion. He would win them back to loyalty by the twofold manifestation of His righteousness and mercy. He would make the valley of humiliation the avenue to victory.<\/p>\n . Men are gradually led into sin, step by step, through a seductive fascination which is far more potent than any obtrusive force. But there is a holy as well as an unholy allurement. God has His indirect methods of reaching the human will. Goodness, as well as evil, woos the soul. The love of God, as here set forth in its constancy and tenderness, is a substantial verity. The Bible speaks of Divine love in the terms of human affection. Man is made in the Divine image, and therefore, through the affection of our own souls, we can rise into some conceptions of the eternal love. Gods love is the inspirer of all true affection. His love is the very fountain of ours. By our wanderings God is grieved. God really does wish you to reciprocate His love. God does allure.<\/p>\n The rod of mercy<\/strong><\/p>\n The <\/em>text describes the way God takes with those offenders to whom He has thoughts of peace and not of evil. Apply this to the spiritual Israel, to all who are called into the fold of Christ.<\/p>\n The Christian in the wilderness<\/strong><\/p>\n The wilderness became, for the Israelites, another word for trouble and sorrow.<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>Because we are so backward in affliction to discern His hand.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>We can get no good out of affliction, and no real comfort under it, till we view it as sent to us from Him. When we discern God at the very root of our sufferings, then the knee bends, the prayer goes up, and the blessing comes down. Then, for the first time, we are quieted and subdued. When we see that a Fathers hand has mingled the cup of bitterness, we soon do more than say, Shall I not drink it<\/p>\n Soul-restoration<\/strong><\/p>\n These <\/em>words are poetically descriptive of the restoration of Israel to the Divine fellowship and favour. They reveal Gods purpose in regard to every penitent prodigal m all ages.<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>The wilderness is suggestive of barrenness. The Arabian desert is a fitting type of that souls experiences which has been led away from its vanities, and brought into a conscious sense of the Divine nearness and purity. The best men who have ever lived have shrivelled up in the all-radiant presence of the Holy One. The wilderness ever stands between guilt and holiness. You cannot become estranged from God in affection and be restored to the experiences of His favour without being brought into the wilderness. He makes you realise your poverty and guilt that you may be prepared to rejoice in His forgiveness.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>The wilderness is suggestive of solitude. There is no scene more isolated from the busy life of the world. Solitude is necessary to repentance. It is only when alone with our great Lord that we learn to despise our frivolities and sins and yearn for succour in His unchanging love.<\/p>\n 3. <\/strong>The wilderness is suggestive of terror. The Sinai Mount is in the wilderness. The flaming law lifts up its awful voice of condemnation. Sinai must frown before Calvary can smile.<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>Affluent experiences. No imagery could be more expressive. The desert transformed into a paradise. The experiences of the Christian life are too rich and exquisite to be exhausted by any imagery. The Lord gives, not merely a sufficiency but a superabundancy.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>An inspiring hope. The valley of trouble has often become a door of hope to Gods chosen. When they have been most perplexed, their deliverance has been most glorious. On the darkest night of their sorrow has broken the effulgence of the brightest day.<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>What praise!<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>What triumph!<\/p>\n 3. <\/strong>What exultation!<\/p>\n How many of us stand in supreme need of soul-restoration! We have lost the power and blessedness of a songful life. Our spiritual sensibilities are benumbed, and our spiritual energies paralysed. O Lord, be gracious unto us as in the days that are past! (Benjamin D. Thomas.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Soul-restoration<\/strong><\/p>\n These words refer to the restoration of Israel to friendship and fellowship with God.<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>The first step to soul-restoration is from bondage to liberty. All souls are in moral Egypt, and the first step to their restoration is their exodus into the moral Arabia.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>The next step is from despondency to hope. In spiritual restoration the soul passes from trouble into hope. Through much tribulation we enter into kingdoms.<\/p>\n 3. <\/strong>The next step is from sterility to fruitfulness. The wilderness was a barren district, but Canaan was a land of vineyards.<\/p>\n 4. <\/strong>The next step is from sadness to exultation. The song of the redeemed at last will be the song of Moses and the Lamb.<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>Morally. Not by force.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>Lovingly. Speak comfortably to her.<\/p>\n 3. <\/strong>Generously. He who gave Canaan to the Jews gives heaven to restored souls. (Homilist.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The valley of Achor for a door of hope<\/strong>.–<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n The valley of Achor<\/strong><\/p>\n The <\/em>history of the nation is the history of the individual magnified. The records of Gods dealings with the nation represent to us, on a larger scale, Gods dealings with the individual. The dealings of God with the individual human heart are generally of so delicate a character, and are so frequently concealed in the secret experiences of our inner life, that it is extremely difficult for even a careful observer to follow them in detail, and apprehend them with any degree of completeness. We are helped, however, by having the history of Gods dealings with the nation, and knowing that these are His dealings with the individual magnified. In this chapter we have the record of Gods dealings with Israel at a period of national apostasy and backsliding. It is evident that God does not think slightingly of sin. The first consequence of national sin is national judgment, inflicted by a rejected God, At last judgments begin to produce the designed effect, and Israel begins to discover that the God who seemed to be her enemy is her real and only faithful friend. In all this we have a picture of Gods dealing with the wayward heart, by which His Divine love designs to win it back from its apostasy and forgetfulness of Him. Observe the first step that Divine love and pity takes. God finds us in our pride and wilfulness, and endeavouring to obtain that satisfaction in the creature which is only to be found in the Creator; and He begins by opening our eyes to the emptiness of all these things in which we have sought our satisfaction; and however slow we are to learn the lesson, He waits His opportunity to allure us into the wilderness. And a dreary wilderness it is. It is a painful process, this opening of the eyes. We shrink from being undeceived; we are reluctant to believe that the world is a grand imposture. We try to persuade ourselves that we shall find in it all we want, and shrink from the dissipation of our fondly cherished anticipations. Sometimes it is by sorrow and bereavement that we are allured into the wilderness. Sometimes God deals with His wandering ones by an inward impression, by the direct and indescribable influences of His Holy Spirit, by outward circumstances, by unlooked-for relief and deliverance. Thus He allures us into the wilderness, to draw us away from our love for, and our confidence in earthly things, and then, when we are thus prepared, to speak to our hearts as He only can. Speak comfortably, should be, speak to her heart. The world can speak to our fancy, and to our intellect, God can speak to our heart; that heart whose wants you have ignored, or to which you have denied what it most needed. He brings to our mind all His wondrous dealings with us in the past. As we look back a flood of recognition rolls over the soul, and a burden of contrition begins to weigh upon our heart, such as it never felt before. Yet from the wilderness where Gods voice has spoken to the heart, the new era of true fruitfulness is to begin. I will give her her vineyards from thence. The firstfruits of the new life are to be gathered in the vintage of joy–the wine that maketh glad the heart of man. Other fruits may follow, but this generally comes first. But how are we to enter upon this new life of fruitful joy and of joyful fruit? If we are to get into the vineyards, we must enter them through Gods appointed door–the valley of Achor. God makes it a door of hope. What we need above everything is a door of hope, a way out of the hideous desolation of our despair. But where shall it be found? None but God knows of a door of hope for perishing man, and He must give it, or our hope is vain. The valley of Achor recalls a national repentance for a national sin: an act of solemn repudiation of sin; it was the place of a great and tragic national expiation. We, too, have a door of hope, strangely similar, and yet strangely different from this. There was One found among the sons of men, who was able and willing to make expiation for mans sins. (W. Hay Aitken, M. A.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n A door of hope<\/strong><\/p>\n 1.<\/strong> <\/em><\/strong>How is this valley of Achor a door of hope to Israel?<\/p>\n (1)<\/strong> Because it was the first place of which they took possession in Israel, and began to have outward means of subsistence, and to eat of the corn of the land.<\/p>\n (2)<\/strong> God made their great trouble there a means of much good to them, for by that they were brought to purge their camp.<\/p>\nFuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
I. <\/strong>He will allure the soul and bring it into the wilderness. This implies that it is elsewhere,–it is in the world. What is meant by the wilderness? It is spoken of our hearts. God will make us, even while living in this world, with all its pleasures and vanities around us, as dead to all as if we were in a wilderness. I spake unto thee in prosperity, and thou wouldest not hear. This is His lament. Therefore He will destroy all those things wherein we trust, that we may hear His voice and live. There is self-denial involved in following where the Spirit leads us. It allures onwards to the wilderness. Follow willingly.<\/p>\n
II. <\/strong>If God has thus dealt with you, it is that he may speak to your hearts. In silence, in solitude, in the desolation of your hearts, He will come and build up their ruined breaches, and dwell therein Himself. Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth. God speaks to the heart; He allures it to Him; and when it has found no rest for the sole of its foot on the waters of this troubled world, bids it return to its true rest in His wounded side. (R. A. Suckling, M. A.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
I. <\/strong>He wins by his love. He allures, persuades, woos, attracts. God respects mans freedom. God Himself cannot compel us to trust and love Him. He has constituted us moral beings. God influences the motives, the desires, the judgments, the affections, operates on the secret power of the will. The only power that can win men from their sin is love. Love has the key that fits every lock in the different chambers of the soul. Love can overcome the enmity of our nature. It will not be slain by any other weapon. And thus God deals with us.<\/p>\n
II. <\/strong>He appoints and uses necessary means of discipline. Having been allured, drawn to God, we are then trained, disciplined. This wilderness state is a state of–<\/p>\n
III. <\/strong>God speaks to us. Lit. I will speak to her heart. Not to the intellect merely, but also to the heart. But Gods words never reach the heart until we have been prepared for them. What are His words that reach the heart? Words of forgiveness, consolation, hope. Are we then making the right use of our Fathers discipline? (James Owen.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
I.<\/strong> <\/em><\/strong>The overtures of mercy. I will allure her. The natural heart is in a state of rebellion against God, and He sends an offer of free pardon to all that will submit to Him. He allures them by His mercies. God works upon mens fears by shewing them their dangers, upon their affections by the offer of His grace.<\/p>\n
II. <\/strong>Troubles that shall come after. I will bring her into the wilderness. When souls are delivered from their natural bondage to sin and Satan, they do not immediately taste all the sweets arising from the liberty of the Gospel. They often indeed suffer greater torments of mind, greater terrors of conscience, than ever they did before. But if God brings His people through a wilderness, He will speak comfortably to them at last.<\/p>\n
III. <\/strong>The end of her troubles. Where God, by His Spirit, speaks comfortably to the heart, that is comfort indeed. If the heart be not at ease, nothing can give us comfort. It is one of the offices of the Spirit to comfort Gods people. (R. W. Dibdin, M. A.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
I. <\/strong>The gracious dealings of god with his church.<\/p>\n
II. <\/strong>The gifts which God bestows on the Church.<\/p>\n
I. <\/strong>Loves artifice. I will allure her. What is the wilderness? A place of blasted ground–ground where life once was, but has withered. A place of desertion and solitude. Surely a strange place for Jehovah to choose as His meeting-place with His bride. This is in its favour, it is a place of silence. The wilderness of the prophet finds its counterpart in the life of the heart. There is blight, through the drying up of the hopes that refreshed you; there is solitude, the sudden awaking to the sense that you are alone, and your desert is a school of silence. It hushes the world, and hushes the heart. There is a blessing for those in the wilderness. The grace that was unsought and unmissed amidst prosperity and plenty, you will learn to recognise and regain amidst the wilderness privations; and the voice you were deaf to amidst prosperitys clamours, you will hear and respond to in the wilderness silence.<\/p>\n
II. <\/strong>Loves language. Speak comfortably to her, speak to her heart. He had often spoken to the ear. Words of solemn warning, words of melting entreaty. But He had never before spoken as He speaks now. Now in her heartache and emptiness there is none can speak to her like her Lord Himself. What presses on her heart is her trespass against love, the thought that a grace so great has been slighted, and a trust so true and loyal has been betrayed. It is when a mans sins have created a wilderness around him that the Saviour comes near and speaks to the heart. Wilderness discipline, with all its privations, and with all its pain, its remorse for the past, and its dread for the future, is well worth bearing if at the last it brings the Redeemer to speak to the heart.<\/p>\n
III. <\/strong>Loves tokens. The gifts which love bestows.<\/p>\n
IV. <\/strong>The effects which love produces. She shall sing there. In the old times there had been unholy mirth. Now she fears to sing the song of the old innocent time. But those whom God pardons, He pardons freely; those whom He restores, He restores right royally. In the days of your Christian youth you could sing. But the glory died, you scarce know how. Grace languished, vows were forgotten, love grew cold, and you fell by degrees from habits of secret neglect into acts of open sin. But yours may be singing days still; for with new material for such singing, the Lord will restore you the heart that can sing, with more than the old love back again. The song will be different, but fuller and richer, set to a steadier cadence, touching a deeper note; the song not of those who are ignorant of sin, but of those who have sinned, and sinned deeply, but by Gods grace are forgiven. (W. A. Gray.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
I. <\/strong>The constancy and tenderness of the Divine love. Observe how the nation of Israel is personified. A faithful husband cannot become indifferent even to a faithless wife. Blended with the Divine wrath against idolatry–yea, lying at the very root of that wrath- is the Eternal Love. These words not only reveal constancy, they also breathe tenderness. Speaking to the heart reaches the affections, thrills the soul, awakens responsive echoes there. Thus God receives the penitent when they plead for pardon. The term allure expresses that kind of influence, the very strength of which lies in its subtlety and gentleness. In the Bible the word is generally used of evil enticements (e.g., <\/em>Samson and Delilah)<\/p>\n
II. <\/strong>The beneficent purpose of the Divine discipline and chastisement. The wilderness is typical of the discipline to which God subjects His people. The Arabian desert was the school in which the Israelites were trained for the exercise of freedom. In Hoseas time Israel needed a repetition of the old lesson. She would, therefore, be brought again into the wilderness. God does not subject us to hardship for hardships sake. It is needful for us that we be led into the wilderness. To give us the vineyards at once might be only to enervate us–to loosen the fibre of our moral being to intoxicate, instead of exhilarating, our souls. And so, in one form or another, all men have to pass through discipline. Through all forms of trial there runs the same beneficent purpose. God designs to bring us into a true and safe prosperity; and so He seeks, by strengthening our character, to prepare us for entering into the land of vineyards The valley of Achor may be taken as typical of the Divine chastisements. The afflictions with which we are visited often assume to our consciences the aspect of correction. Our calamities, bringing us into the light of God, bring us also face to face with the sins which that light condemns. Sometimes we can trace the connection between our troubles and our transgressions. But accept your trouble as the chastisement of One who loves you, the valley of Achor will be made to you a door of hope. Never murmur under any of the Divine dealings. Realise the constancy and tenderness of Ills holy love. He is a jealous God; but is there no such thing as a righteous and holy jealousy in man? God cannot love us and be indifferent as to whether we love Him or not. Cling then to hope, even in the midst of severest trials. These trials are either to chastise us for our transgressions, or else to mould our characters after a nobler type. In either case a loving purpose underlies them. (T. Campbell Finlayson.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
I. <\/strong>The way in which those whom God loves are rebuked and chastened by Him. I will allure her, etc. The wilderness was to the Israelites an emblem of affliction. It was a wilderness in which their forefathers had spent forty years of trial and chastisement. Into the wilderness of trouble the Lord brings every member of His family, both at the time of their conversion and after it. God often calls the Christian off from the path of ease and satisfaction, and makes him feel the thorns and briers of affliction, because he is loving earthly things too well, and losing sight of God, cleaving to the creature more than to the Creator. But the afflictions of Gods people are not like the afflictions of the world. God does not drive <\/em>His people to the wilder ness, He brings <\/em>them there,–that is to say, He goes with them Himself. Believers are, in a certain sense, allured to trouble, for they are well assured that their Lord knows better than they do what is really good for them.<\/p>\n
II. <\/strong>The comfort which attends Gods chastisements. Speak comfortably to her. The Lord speaks thus to the newly awakened soul, and He has comforts for every after stage of experience. Never does He bring them into the wilderness of trouble but He comes down and talks with them. In distress of mind they may think God has forsaken them; but it is not so, for He is by, and full of tenderness, though He seem to deal with them severely. Soon they know and feel this, for His comforts flow into their hearts.<\/p>\n
III. <\/strong>The good fruits which follow the afflictions of Gods people. Vineyards from a wilderness! A crop of grapes from a barren and dry land! In the spiritual wilderness of trouble and affliction such wonders do occur. Had the sinner never smarted for his sins he never would have reaped the fruits of a Redeemers love. The text is true with respect to all the wildernesses which the Christian enters in his pilgrimage through life. Never does he cross the desert land of trouble but he gathers fruits there. The believer is enriched by his afflictions. When the Lord straitens him in one respect, He enlarges him in another. The spiritual Achor becomes a door of hope. He expects great things from a God whose mercies and whose loving-kindnesses he has found so plenteous.<\/p>\n
IV. <\/strong>The thanks givings which Gods chastened people are sure to return, in the issue, unto him who smote them. She shall sing there. This first refers to the Israelites, and recalls the song at the Red Sea. Applied to the Lords people generally, it signifies that their <\/em>troubles also should-issue in a song of praise. What believer is there who would not sing, with all his heart and soul, the hymn that should bless God for his afflictions? He would never have known his joys but for his sorrows. (A. Roberts, M. A.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
I. <\/strong>The author of affliction. God forces Himself on our notice as the source Of His peoples troubles. Why this anxiety in a God of love to stand thus forward as the author of misery?<\/p>\n
II. <\/strong>Why God afflicts us. The text discovers to us one of the most frequent causes of our sorrows. It is our forget fulness of God, and that not in His judgments, but in His mercies, a failing to recognise His hand in them. It may be you have lost some of your earthly mercies; but you know why God has stripped you bare, as well as though His own voice sounded it from heaven in your ears. You had forgotten Him in His gifts. You tried to live without God in the world. In jealousy for His own honour, in love for your souls, He withdrew the gifts you had abused. He made you feel once again that you need Him. God never deprives us of things without a cause. But if you will not see Him in the enjoyment of them, He will make you see Him in their loss.<\/p>\n
III. <\/strong>How God sometimes afflicts us. Gradually, compassionately, tenderly. Sometimes His judgments appear to come suddenly. This is His way usually with the strong. He carries the weak and inexperienced into the wilderness. A mothers tenderness could not equal His. He shows them how much they need affliction, and how much good they will derive from it, Other men are driven into the wilderness, the Christian is allured into it.<\/p>\n
IV. <\/strong>The comfort which the Lord imparts in the wilderness. Others speak comfortably to us in our sorrow, but if that sorrow is deep, what power have their words! God speaks to the heart, and then everything comforts, for God speaks by everything.<\/p>\n
V. <\/strong>The supplies which God furnishes in tribulation. He represents Himself as more than a Comforter, He is a Benefactor, and a rich one. He has promised vineyards in the wilderness. Such blessings as will more than supply the place of those lost. And these are actually to grow out of our afflictions.<\/p>\n
VI. <\/strong>The hope that God excites in affliction. Even when trouble came on trouble, and things seemed to be quite hopeless, God opened a door of hope. Learn the effect to be produced on Israel by the mercies vouchsafed to her. (C. Bradley.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
I. <\/strong>Soul-restoration–in its origin. The originating causes, for the most part, lie back of what is Seen. The agencies that go to make summer are Divine. And the same is true of the soul. The only agencies that can prove effective in restoring it to summer experience and fruitfulness must come from God. It is not repentance, nor faith, nor service, nor sacrifice does it. As the sun carries all the influences needful to give richness to the trees and fragrance to the flowers, even so does God treasure up within Himself all those influences and inspirations which are essential to the enrichment of the soul. It would be a sad thing for us if our spiritual restoration were dependent on our good deeds. The Divine effulgence is necessary to our illumination. The Divine inflowing of life and warmth is essential to the production of Christian sensibility. The sun does not shine upon this earth because it is fair and fruitful; he shines rather to make it so. It is not our goodness or our prayers that cause God to love and bless, but He loves and blesses that we might become recipients of all Christian grace and excellence.<\/p>\n
II. <\/strong>In its methods. How does God restore the soul In a family the disobedient one is punished. No treatment could be too severe to meet the case of backsliding Israel; and yet God m His mercy says, I will allure her. He had left her for awhile. He had permitted her to indulge her vanities unrestrained. At length He hedged up her way. But all these methods proved to be ineffectual. Is it not amazing that He did not turn away in disgust But with infinite tenderness He says, I will allure her into the wilderness. I have tried these various methods without result. I will now exercise my fascinations to win back her love. What is the wilderness into which God leads?<\/p>\n
III. <\/strong>In its blessings. She is only brought into the wilderness that she might be weaned away from her illicit loves. No sooner does she begin to blush and weep and tremble than her gracious Lord takes her into His arms and presses her to His bosom, and enriches her with all the wealth of His affection. Here we have–<\/p>\n
IV. <\/strong>In its effects. When our souls have been restored, we too shall sing as in the days of our youth. How was it with us then?<\/p>\n
I. <\/strong>The stages in soul-restoration are gradual.<\/p>\n
II. <\/strong>The agency in soul-restoration is divine. No one but God can restore souls. Mark how He does it.<\/p>\n