Hosea 11

I drew them with cords of a man. That is, such cords as are proper to draw men with, as they are men endued with reason to discern between good and evil and with freedom of will to choose the one before the other; and with such a temper and agreement of both that what we apprehend to be good we freely choose, and refuse what we think to be evil. Accordingly God sets before us good and evil, and both in such a light that we may clearly discern the difference between them, and choose the good before the evil. Thus He draws us with cords, suitable to man’s constitution; in explanation He adds, “with bands of love,” or with expressions of His love and kindness toward us. In this way one man commonly draws another; how much more can Almighty God do it, who hath the hearts of all men in His hand, and the greatest favors to bestow which man can possibly desire? This is the meaning of the apostle, “that the goodness of God leadeth us to repentance” (Rom. 2: 4). It doth not force or drag us, but it leads us to repentance, and so to Christ. Bp. Beveridge.

View it in one light, the admission of Christ into a sinner’s heart is as much God’s work as though man did nothing in it; view it in another, it is as much man’s as though God did nothing. Man works, but he works by a power and by a will also that God has given him. “I drew them,” says the Lord of His people of old, and with cords and bands—there is His almighty power; there He puts His own stamp on His own work—but how did He draw them? He tells us, “with cords of a man, with bands of love;” not as brute beasts that must be driven and forced, but as men, as reasonable beings, by convincing their judgments and laying hold of their hearts. C. Bradley.

There is a manifest congruity in the circumstance that the Agent conducts His work so silently and imperceptibly. It is only by such a mode of procedure that the spirit of man can retain its separate action and freedom. There is no violence done to man’s nature in the supernatural work carried on in the heart. The dealings of God are, in every respect, suited to the essential and indispensable principles of man’s nature. “I drew them with the cords of a man, with the bands of love.” McCosh.

Love was the cord which bound the God-man to the holy cross; the nails and the cross could not have held Him had not love bound Him fast. It is the same blessed cord of love which united Divinity to humanity; and for what cause? Love was the sole cause. It was love which at the first created us in the Divine image; and when we had lost the life of grace, love willing to give us back that which we had lost by sin and frailty. God sent forth His only Son, and willed that by His blood grace should be restored to us. And the Son, in all things obedient, humbled Himself to the death of the cross for love of us and for our salvation. . . . Oh, inestimable love! If man can give no greater proof of love than to lay down his life for a friend, how should we appreciate Thy love toward us who were Thine enemies? Thou hast given Thy life. Thou hast ransomed us with Thy blood. This surpasses all love. . . . Thou hast become the Mediator. Thy death has made peace between man and God; and the nails which pierced Thee are to us as the keys of life eternal! St. Catherine of Siena.

How many, alas! are drawn who will not come!—by the voice of God in mercies, afflictions, invitations and warnings, to which they give no heed. But never did a sinner heed that voice and come to Christ in vain; never was a trembling penitent cast out. Whosoever will may come; and to every one who trusts in Him, Jesus gives everlasting life; not merely the promise of life in the hereafter, but the possession now of that principle of life which can never die. Even his body shall not be hurt of death, but shall be raised up at the last day in the likeness of Christ’s glorious body. Redemption shall thus forever destroy both the power and the effects of sin. J. P. T.

If His love cannot reach you, then you cannot be reached, and if His love cannot save you, then you cannot be saved; for salvation is character, and love is the power by which only it is, or ever can be, wrought. Oh the perversity, blindness, hardness—apart from all thought of retribution we say it—that cannot be gained by all that God has done, or does, or shows, or suffers in His Son! Bushnell.

8. The sense of this verse is plain. The “giving up,” is to hopeless ruin and desolation. So the parallel word—“deliver thee”—means to give over to the fell destroyer. “Admah and Zeboim” are associated with Sodom and Gomorrah as lying near in Gen. 14: 8, and in Deut. 29: 23 as involved in the same terrible doom. “Mine heart is turned within me”—with feelings of pity and grief and tender compassion. No words of comment can heighten the beauty and force of this inimitable passage. The very heart of the God of love stands forth revealed in its glowing and expressive words.

The general strain of the message, sent of God by Hosea, had been of necessity stringent and stern with rebukes for sin, and oftentimes terrible in revelations of impending judgment—all right because absolutely necessary. Yet this strain, alone and exclusive, would not do full justice to the tenderness and the loving pity of Israel’s God. These messages therefore cannot close without a most emphatic testimony to the lovingkindness of Jehovah. These testimonies concerning God prove: That He has no pleasure in bringing ruin on even the guiltiest sinner. That He does not punish in the spirit of vindictiveness. That He would always spare the sinner, and forbear to punish, or even chastise, if He could do so wisely and safely. That He takes supreme delight in conferring good, and longs to bless all His sentient creatures. That it is only with the deepest grief that He ever brings pain and woe upon His creatures. Hence, that He will never punish any sinner beyond his real deserts—never beyond what the good of the universe imperatively demands. That no sinner, however severely punished, can ever blame God. That all sinners are bound to do justice to the Divine love and pity, and should never impute to God feelings and motives which his own heart-utterances unmistakably preclude and forbid. Finally, that the character and government of such a God should command our unbounded and eternal confidence and love. H. C.

God pours out His whole heart of love in pleading, in yearning over His prodigal, erring child. He draws His stirring appeals from every topic which experience proves to carry weight with it. At one time He rolls over the sinner’s head the thunders of retribution—He whispers into the ear of the conscience the nearness of death and judgment. At another, He arrays before him the blessings and comforts of a lot which has fallen in fair ground, and asks by an inward voice which will not be suppressed, whether these do not legitimately call for gratitude. At another, He pleads in yet more urgent strains the Sacrifice which He has provided to win back the allegiance of man—the Sacrifice which testifies to a love stronger than death, which the many waters of human indifference cannot quench, neither can the floods of ingratitude drown it. The God-man by His Word, by His ministers, by His Spirit, pleads the wounds which scarred His sacred body, and the pangs which rent His holy soul asunder, the strong crying which went up to

God from the depths of His unfathomable anguish, and the bitter tears which, in the days of His flesh, the malice of foes and the faithlessness of friends alike conspired to draw from Him. E. M. G.

9. It is in accommodation to finite minds that He represents a conflict in His own between His indignation against sin and His pity for the sinner. Such representations can scarcely mislead any except the captious and uncandid. In the phrase, “I will not return to destroy,” the first verb is used adverbially, the sense being, “I will not again destroy.” The reason given, “for I am God and not man,” reminds us of those beautiful words of Isaiah (55: 8), “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, saith the Lord.” H. C.

Man’s compassions are nothing in comparison with the tender mercies of our God, whose thoughts and ways, in receiving returning sinners, are as much above ours as heaven is above the earth. It is a great encouragement to our hope in God’s mercies to remember that He is God, and not man. He is the Holy One. One would think this were a reason why He should reject such a provoking people; no, God knows how to spare and pardon poor sinners, not only without any reproach to His holiness, but very much to the honor of it; as He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and therein declares His righteousness, now Christ has purchased the pardon and He has promised it. H.

12. The Hebrew attaches this verse to the next chapter. In the course of thought it belongs there, and not at the close of this, since it reverts again to the perverseness, treachery and hypocrisy of Israel.

Chap. 12. In this chapter the prophet, besides bringing out yet more fully the sins of Ephraim and of Judah, seeks to encourage repentance and trust in God by referring to events in the early history of the patriarch Jacob—his taking the precedence of his brother Esau (verse 3); his prevailing prayer at Peniel, and his meeting with God at Bethel (verses 3-5).

3,4. The name “Jacob,” applied to the northern kingdom, helps the prophet to pass by an easy transition to the early history of the patriarch who bore this name. “He took his brother by the heel in the womb,” indicating that he would supplant him in the matter of the birthright and of priority. See the history (Gen. 25: 26). The verb from which the name Jacob is derived means “to take by the heel,” to supplant. No bad intention or purpose on Jacob’s part should attach to this supplanting

as here spoken of. It simply indicated the purpose of God to put Jacob before Esau, although born last. This preference is alluded to in this passage to encourage the people to return to their own God. The next clause carries us to the celebrated scene of Peniel, where Jacob wrestled with the angel of the covenant in struggling prayer all night, and finally prevailed, “had power with God,” and became a prince through his perseverance and success. The Lord gave him the name Israel, meaning a prince with God, at this very time, both to indicate and to honor his prevalence in prayer. (See Gen. 32: 28.) “Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel; for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed.” The fourth verse might be rendered somewhat freely, thus: “And then he had power with the angel and prevailed; he wept and made supplication to him. Also God met him (Jacob) at Bethel, and there spake with him and through him with us.” The angel referred to is called God (Elohim) in verse 3, and can be no other than the uncreated angel of the covenant, who appears not unfrequently in the history of ancient Israel, manifesting Divine attributes, and obviously being the very Messiah, then, as ever, the Head of the Church on earth. H. C.