Hosea 6

6:1 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. After two days will he revive us: on the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live before him. And let us know, let us follow on to know the LORD; his going forth is sure as the morning: and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter rain that watereth the earth. 4 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 dew that goeth early away. Therefore have I hewed them by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of my mouth: and thy judgements are as the light that goeth forth. For I desire mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings. But they like Adam have transgressed the covenant: there have they dealt treacherously against me. Gilead is a city of them that work iniquity, it is stained with blood. And as troops of robbers wait for a man, so the company of priests murder in the way toward Shechem: yea, they have committed lewdness. In the house of Israel I have seen an horrible thing: there whoredom is found in Ephraim, Israel is defiled. Also, O Judah, there is an harvest appointed for thee, when I bring again the captivity of my people.

Chap. 6. In this chapter we have calls to repentance, assurances of God’s great mercy, but this mercy is grieved by the fickleness of God’s degenerate people. It closes with continued details of aggravated wickedness.

1. With unsurpassed beauty and force the Lord Himself gives His people the very words with which they may exhort each other to return to Him. The marvel is that in the figure the Lord is no more the lion, but an angel of mercy, coming down to bind up the wounds Himself has made! And it is He Himself that declares this—testimony, therefore, that could not be better. Indeed, we could not reasonably accept any other. For who else could know, or who else could make us believe, that the same God who hath torn will also heal—the same who hath smitten will also bind up? Such are the wondrous things of God’s mercy. H. C.

We live under an economy of which sorrow is a part, but of which God’s healing is also a part. We are under the care of Jehovah that healeth; a wise healer, a tender healer, a thorough healer. The alternation of joy and sorrow in our life is not accidental, it obeys a law; it is all regulated, the joy and the sorrow alike, by infinite wisdom and infinite love. Healing has a lesson as well as sorrow; it is not an end unto itself, not an encouragement to indolence and slackness, but a monition pointing us to make use of recovered tone and strength on the path of duty and ministry. God, in calling Himself our Healer, appeals to no sickly sentiment in us. Healing means more toil and more burdens and more conflict, and these will continue to the end. But let us remember that God never forgets to give rest along the road, and refreshment at the right places to His faithful ones. Even on earth there will be intervals of sweet rest, though the desert lie on beyond. After Marah came Elim with palms and abundant wells, shade and flowing waters, and they were suffered to encamp there by the wells and to stay awhile. By and by the desert will be passed, the palms of the heavenly Elim will rise into view, and the faithful shall walk with the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne, who shall lead them to living fountains of waters, and God—the Lord that healeth—shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. Vincent.

2. The language of the verse finds its just and complete application in the hopes expressed by those penitent Israelites, whose posture of mind the prophet is here dramatically setting forth. In all ages, however, Christian piety has generally recognized in its wording a reference to our Lord’s resurrection. There’s nothing in the New Testament to constrain us so to apply the passage; for, so far as appears, it makes no allusion to it. Nevertheless, a believer in Christ, without fearing any censure from sound criticism, may be bold to surmise, that “the Spirit of Christ which was in Hosea” did prompt him so to fashion his utterance as in an allusive manner to turn the thoughts of those who in future ages should repent toward that great event. The death and burial of Christ as “made sin for us,” succeeded “on the third day” by His resurrection, is, in fact, for all penitents, the sole and certain ground of their being freed from the state of sin and condemnation and rising again to live in God’s sight. Since therefore it was to be by virtue of Christ’s being raised from the dead on the third day that penitents were to be “raised up” from their spiritual misery, it may well be believed that the Holy Spirit suggested the designation of time, which is here given and which is certainly remarkable, with an oblique reference to the resurrection of the Saviour of the world. B. C.

Though He forsake for a small moment, He will gather with everlasting kindness. The people of God may not only be torn and smitten, but left for dead, and may lie so a great while; but they shall not always lie so, nor shall they long lie so; God will in a little time revive them; and the assurance given them of this should engage them to return, and adhere to Him. H.

3. The text sets forth with great simplicity the manner in which Divine knowledge and experience, growth in grace and the knowledge of Christ, is to be successfully sought, while it illustrates in two similes of singular beauty the results thereby attained. “Then shall we know if we follow on to know the Lord; His going forth is prepared as the morning”—i.e., He sheds a steady and culminating radiance upon the path of the soul, “and He shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth”—i.e., the effect of the knowledge of God divinely imparted shall be to distil refreshing, fructifying influences upon the heart. The manner in which Divine knowledge and experience is successfully sought is by following on to know the Lord. The single idea it conveys is plainly that of persistent, steadfast effort in pressing forward. It intimates with the utmost distinctness the single condition of progress in religion so far as dependent on human agency to consist in the unremitting exertion of all the soul’s powers in the active pursuit of Divine knowledge and experience. By no uncertain implication it declares that the Christian’s progress depends not upon miracle or the interposition of supernatural agency in producing strange, startling impressions upon the mind, nor upon the mere exercise of Divine sovereignty, the exertion of absolute, irresistible power in carrying on the process of transformation in the heart, nor yet upon passive participation in outward ordinances or ceremonies of a formal worship. It affirms that the soul’s advancement in spiritual knowledge and holiness is to be achieved not by any passive waiting for God, or by any formal posture of spiritual indolence or inaction, but simply by unceasing personal attention to the means of knowledge and grace furnished in the revealed Word and the accessible mercy-seat of Jehovah, by active waiting upon and efficient working with God in connection with these means. It asserts, in a word, that the requisites essential to the soul’s growth in knowledge and grace are all included in faithful, steadfast effort in seeking and using these divinely provided means. B.

These words were, no doubt, fulfilled in many a deliverance of the Jewish people; but their own most ancient commentators find their last fulfilment in the great promised Messiah, to whom all the prophets gave witness. The promises of the Old Testament are waves which urge each other on, to rise and fall in many a deliverance, until at length they break on the great shore of all safety—the salvation which is in Christ with eternal glory. And it would surely be a shame for us Christians to do less than ancient Jewish doctors did, to fail in finding here a prophecy of the world’s Redeemer. It is Christ, then, whom our faith must grasp under these two figures, the Day-dawn and the Rain. There must be something of common likeness in them, for they both apply to the same great Person, and yet there must be something distinctive meant to be conveyed, for the Word of God uses no vain repetitions, no mere figures of rhetoric. When we come to the New Testament, we find clearly revealed what the ancient prophets dimly suggested. There is a twofold coming of the Son of God, the first in His own person to establish and confirm the Gospel, the second in His Holy Spirit to apply to the heart. The one of these may very fitly be compared to the morning, the other to the rain. Indeed, these are the two figures most frequently used in this connection all through the Bible. Christ Himself is the Light of the world, the Sun of Righteousness. His Spirit is poured forth as floods on the thirsty. Ker.

“We shall know, we shall follow on to know the Lord.” So the words may be rendered. Those who know a little of Jesus’ love, and are but just brought acquainted with His free grace and salvation shall hold on their way. Knowledge, light, peace and love shall increase to their souls, through that Spirit by whom they are regenerated and born again. Though at first they are but “babes in Christ, yet, through the milk of the word, they shall grow and increase with the increase of God.” The going forth of Christ’s love toward us is as the morning. At the dawn of day light is scarcely discernible; it seems opposed by surrounding darkness, yet gradually increases, till the sun gains its meridian. So “the path of the just shineth more and more unto the perfect day.” And He will also “come unto us as the rain,” to refresh, enliven, and make our souls fruitful in knowledge, peace, love and holiness; yea, as “the latter and former rain.” W. Mason.

Every nearer approach to a lucid thing infers (to us) an increase of light from it. We should therefore be following on to know the Lord, and we shall see His going forth will be before us as the morning. He will be still visiting us with renewed, increasing light, for such is morning light, fresh and growing light, and erelong it will be perfect day. Labor we to improve our knowledge of God to such a degree of acquaintance as our present state can admit of; to be as inward with Him as we can, to familiarize ourselves to Him. Howe.

Observe how clear the light is along our path of duty. Everything necessary to the performance of our task is supplied in fullest abundance. Not only all necessary knowledge, but hope, encouragement, inducement, commendation, the evils which will follow neglect, all the elements of courage, zeal, fortitude, endurance, faithfulness as against obstacles and temptations. We can walk in no path of life, and in no part of any path in which we shall not have a sure word of prophecy, a light in the darkness, a lamp to our feet. The lamp illumines the path from childhood to old age down into the shadows of death and beyond. We clearly see the path far enough beyond the valley of death for us to know that in following it we shall ascend the eternal hills. Interior.

The light of glory is to reward the victory obtained by the conduct of the light of grace. God in great mercy even here begins the reward. They that follow on to know the Lord usually find such increase of light, not consisting in vain notions, but in the quickening and comforting knowledge of God, as greatly encourages them, and draws them still on to seek more. Baxter.

We are as dependent upon God now as then for the early and the latter rain, for the showers that water and refresh the earth. Equally dependent are we for those influences of the Holy Spirit by which Christ in all His preciousness and graciousness is communicated to the soul. Blessed is the man whose soul has been brought under this gracious baptism of the Spirit, to whom Christ has thus come as the rain! The roots of his religious life are fed. The founfountains of spiritual energy in his soul are replenished. The leaves of his Christian profession are cleansed and made verdant. The flowers of all saintly charity are made to blossom, and the fruits of all holy endeavor to ripen. T. D. Witherspoon.

Going with Him, following Him wherever He leads, without question, without condition, without reserve, not counting the cost, that was the way His first disciples followed Him. That is the way His disciples must follow Him now. Absolute obedience to Him is the condition of following. J. R. M.—All true knowledge which is not mere empty notions naturally tends to influence action, and all true action naturally tends to confirm the knowledge from which it proceeds. Obedience gives insight: “If any man wills to do My will, he shall know of the doctrine.” If I am faithful up to the limits of my present knowledge, and have brought it all to bear on character and conduct, I shall find that in the effort to make my every thought a deed. I see some things clearly that were faint and doubtful before. Moral truth becomes dim to a bad man. Religious truth grows bright to a good one, and whosoever strives to bring all his creed into practice and all his practice under the guidance of his creed will find that the path of obedience is the path of growing light. A. M.

The doctrines and truths of Christianity belong to the sphere of the religious life and to the experience of the spirit within us, and are to be tested and verified within the sphere with which they are concerned. Chemical properties may be established by experiment in the laboratory; historical facts are tested by the comparison of independent records; but spiritual things are spiritually determined and discerned. Religious doctrine has to do mainly with the life and experience, and can be verified only in the life and experience. The truth of our Lord’s practical and spiritual teaching is tested only by actually putting it to the test; that is, making experiment of it, acting upon it in the life. It is for the religious sphere, and the conclusions of reasoning cannot determine its falsehood or truth. When our Lord says, “Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light;” how shall we verify this saying? The only method of testing it is by taking that easy yoke and bearing that light burden; or by collecting the testimony of those who have done so. The larger number by far of the vital principles of the Gospel are open to the same process of verification, and to no other. “If any man will do the will of My Father, he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God.” British Quarterly Review, 1879.

God does not leave Himself unrevealed to the man who seeks after Him in the appointed way. And it is only when we get where we know God as a fact and feel Him as a certainty that is beyond impeachment that anything that can properly be called religion really begins. All our philosophy is well enough as philosophy. All our dogma may be correct enough as dogma. Pictures of the sun may answer excellently well as pictures, but they give no light. Theories of God may be wrought out with consummate acuteness and delicacy, but they work in us no assurance and minister to us no comfort. God, not as a topic that we can ponder upon, but as a personal presence into which we can come, and find ourselves gifted and assured, is what you and I actually want, and what we cannot be satisfied without obtaining. God is visible to the heart that is clean. We can call it seeing God, or walking with God, or being hid with Christ in God. The phraseology matters nothing so long as the one deep fact is there. And then all our suspense ceases. Our life is filled with wonderful composure. We have touched solid rock. We can believe largely now because we know profoundly. The last ingredient of infidelity is cleansed from our faith. We can bear burdens that are heavy because we have certain footing. How high we shall build will depend; but one thing is settled—the foundation is fixed, and that will not have to be stirred any more. We know the Lord, and all that remains to us is to go on to know the Lord. C. H. P.

Religion is not a matter of theory, but a matter of life. We are to prove it by living it. Take every word which Christ speaks, and begin at once to obey it if it be a command, or trust it and lean on it if it be a promise. No matter if you do not understand it nor see why the command is good, yet do it. Let God lead you, and only be sure that you obey and trust Him. You will not know any faster than you will do. Only keep on following Christ, and the way will open to you and become plain as you go on step by step. J. R. M.

Christ thus puts practice before knowledge, or, rather, practice as a means to knowledge; and in this He lays down no arbitrary or unfamiliar law. The best of our knowledge—all of it, indeed, that is practically useful—is gained through practice. No man ever learned the truth and will of God without doing His will. The doing is just as much a part of the learning as the studying. Doing is a mode of study. . . . To know God is the best solution of mysteries. To know that teaching is from God is to be satisfied that you will be taught all that you ought to know. Through this process you will have reached not only the teaching of God, but what is more important, the result of that teaching, the secret of life. For you will come to know God as revealed in His Son: “and this is life eternal to know Thee, the only true God, and Him whom Thou didst send, even Jesus Christ.” You shall know that life as you know your own natural life—not its ultimate mystery, but as a conscious Divine force in you—Christ formed within; as an ever-burning and yearning love; as a steady impulse to duty; as a rest in toil; as a comfort in sorrow; as a controlling wisdom; as an intelligent sympathy; as a translator of the commonplace into the heavenly. Vincent.

Often look on the perfect pattern which Christ in His holy example hath given thee for a holy life. Our hand will be as the copy is we write after; if we set low examples before us, it cannot be expected we should rise high ourselves; and indeed the holiest saint on earth is too low to be our pattern, because perfection in holiness must be aimed at by the weakest Christian, and that is not to be found in the best of saints in this lower world. If thou wilt walk holily, thou must not only endeavor to do what Christ commands, but as Christ Himself did; thou must labor to shape every letter in thy copy, action in life, in a holy imitation of Christ. Gurnall.

No grace, not even the most sparkling and shining, can bring us to heaven without perseverance in following Christ; not faith, if it be faint and frail; nor love, if it decline and wax cold; nor humility, if it continue not to the end; not obedience, not repentance, not patience, no, nor any other grace, except they have their perfect work. It is not enough to begin well unless we end well. T. Brooks.

The followers of Christ were first His servants, and He their Master; then His disciples, and He their Teacher; soon afterward they were His friends, and He theirs; straightway after His resurrection and entrance into an immortal condition they were His brethren; and, lastly, they were incorporated into Him and made partakers of His glory. Bp. Hall.

4. Alas! that there should ever be occasion to turn so abruptly from the glory of God’s mercy to the meanness of man’s sin; from the enduring love and the well-ordered going forth of His light and salvation to the fickleness of man’s best resolutions and to the inconstancy of his most hopeful professions! The antithesis between this verse and the preceding one should be noted. The morning light, gloriously outbreaking from the east, is God’s love shining out on the darkness of the sin-stricken soul. The morning cloud and the early dew, hopeful and sweet for a moment, but soon gone up as if they had never been, are the goodness of God’s inconstant people. We cannot wonder that the Lord should exclaim, “O Ephraim! what shall I do unto thee?” By what new and untried appliances shall I bring stability out of fickleness, and make your wavering steps steadfast? H. C.

God wants something more than passing emotions of sorrow for sin, something more than short-lived spasms of desire for holiness. The religion God wants in men is that which binds them to Him with bands that cannot be severed; which does not weaken as time rolls by; which stays by them in fair weather and foul; when things go well and when they go ill. Let men take heed lest they be left as Ephraim, left to the world into whose arms they have cast themselves, left to the idols to which they have joined themselves. No man can dismiss the impressions which God’s truth sends him but at the peril of his soul. J. C. McClintock.

5. Thy judgments are as the light that goeth forth. God having admonished, reproved and threatened the people in order to recall them, but without effect, they cannot accuse Him of cruelty in inflicting the judgments which He threatens—such judgments are evidently deserved; their justice is as clear as the sun, “as the light that goeth forth,” as manifest as that is to all. Pocock.

6. “Mercy” here represents the whole circle of moral duties toward man, as in the next clause “the knowledge of God” stands for that which is practical, not theoretical only, and comprises all right affections toward God. The people had shown themselves far more ready to offer sacrifices than to do right toward either God or man. The Lord, on the contrary, held sacrifices in low esteem, but held in the highest esteem mercy toward man and the intelligent worship and homage of the heart toward God. See a similar doctrine taught in the Old Testament (Ps. 40: 7-9; 50: 8-23; Isa. 1: 11-17; Micah 6: 6-8). Our Divine Teacher on two several occasions endorsed the sentiment of this verse most emphatically (Matt. 9: 13; 12: 7): “Go ye and learn what that meaneth; I will have mercy and not sacrifice,” said, in this case, to show why He ate with publicans and sinners—viz., to save their souls. “But if ye had known what this meaneth: ‘I will have mercy, and not sacrifice,’ ye would not have condemned the guiltless”—said in rebuke of the Pharisees for their judgments in regard to keeping the Sabbath. This form of statement should not be pressed to mean that God had never required sacrifice and burnt offerings; this would not be true. This doctrine needs often to be revived and reiterated, so prone are men to put the forms and ceremonies of religion in the place of real kindness and justice toward man and honest heart worship of God. H. C.

I desired mercy and not sacrifice—that is, rather than sacrifice, and insisted upon the knowledge of God more than upon burnt offerings. Mercy here is the same word which we rendered goodness (verse 4), piety, sanctity; it is put for all practical religion; it is the same with charity in the New Testament, the reigning love of God and our neighbor; and this accompanied with and flowing from the knowledge of God as He has revealed Himself in His Word, a firm belief that He is and is the Rewarder of them that diligently seek Him, a good affection to Divine things guided by a good judgment, which cannot but produce a very good conversation—this is that which God by His covenant requires, and not sacrifice and offering. This is fully explained Jer. 7: 22, 23, “I spake not to your fathers concerning burnt offerings” (that was the smallest of the matters I spake to them of, and on which the least stress was laid), but “this I said, Obey My voice” (Micah 6: 6-8). To love God and our neighbor is better than all burnt offering and sacrifice (Mark 12: 33; Ps. 51: 16, 17). Not but that sacrifice and offering were required and to be paid and had their use, and when they were accompanied with mercy and the knowledge of God were acceptable to Him, but without these God regarded them not, He despised them. It is mentioned likewise to show that God’s controversy with them was not for the omission of sacrifices—“I will not reprove thee for them” (Ps. 50: 8), but because there was no justice, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God among them (chap. 4: 1), and to teach us all that the power of godliness is the main thing God looks at and requires, and without it the form of godliness is of no avail. Serious piety in the heart and life is the one thing needful, and separate from that the

performances of devotion, though ever so plausible, ever so costly, are of no account. Our Saviour quotes this to show that moral duties are to be preferred before rituals whenever they come in competition, and to justify Himself in eating with publicans and sinners because it was in mercy to the souls of men, and in healing on the Sabbath day because it was in mercy to the bodies of men to which the ceremony of singularity in eating and the Sabbath rest must give way (Matt. 9 : 13 ; 12 : 7). H.