Hosea 10

Hosea 10:1-8

In this chapter, 1. The people of Israel are charged with gross corruptions in the worship of God, and are threatened with the disforction of their images and altars, ver. 1, 2, 5, 6, 8. 2. They are charged with corruptions in the administration of the civil government, and are threatened with the ruin of it, ver. 3, 4, 7. 3. They are charged with imitating the sins of their fathers, and with security in their own sins, and are threatened with humbling judgments, ver. 9—11. 4. They are earnestly invited to reject and reform, and are threatened with ruin if they did not, ver. 12—15. (spoken words; swearing fairly in making a covenant thus judgement springeth up a hemlock in the furrows of the field. 5. The inhabitants of Samaria shall fear because of the calves of Beth-aven: for the people thereof shall mourn over it, and the priests thereof that rejoiced on it, for the glory thereof, because it is departed from it. 6. It shall be also carried unto Affyria for a pretext to king Jareb: Ephraim shall receive shame, and Israel shall be ashamed of his own counsel. 7. As for Samaria, her king is cut off in the foam upon the water. 8. The high places also of Aven, the fin 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. Still the sins of the people, and the judgments of God, are the burden of the prophecy. 1. Their sins are charged upon them. [1.] They are destitute of all goodness. Israel is an empty vine, of no profit to the owner: he bringeth forth fruit unto himself; he thinks not of advancing God’s glory, but his own; and his earthly good things are spent not in God’s service, but consumed on his lofty, or in the worship of God; and perhaps he is therefore an empty vine, being thus impercised and exhausted. [2.] They are devoted to idolatry. According to the multitude of his fruits, as his riches increased, he hath increased the altars, &c. turning thus God’s gifts against him, and abusing his blessings to the vilest purposes. Note, We too often see an increase of wealth abused in the increase of wickedness, instead of being employed as a more enlarged opportunity put into men’s hands of serving God’s cause, and doing good in their generation. [3.] Their heart is divided; among themselves factions rage, and feces dispute about the preference of idols: or rather, their heart is divided between God and the calves. Now shall they be found faulty, this halting between both being highly criminal; for a divided heart God abhors: or, they shall be depleted, with his judgments. [4.] They have spoken words, featuring fully in making a covament; perjured and prophane, making no confidence of oaths or leagues; and on the very fast of judgment, injustice and oppression far enlivened. Thus judgment, which should have been administered with impartiality as a medicine, through false witnesses, and a corrupt magistracy, springeth up as bearded in the furrows of the field; hatred and poisonous, perverted to the greater loss or ruin of the injured: and God will visit for these things, and avenge the quarrel of those who are oppressed with wrong. 2. Their punishments are denounced. [1.] They shall say, We have no king; as bad as none, when justice was to ill administered; or really without a king, through the frequent afflictions of their monarchs; or having none able to protect them from their enemies; or, as at the last, when they and their king together were led captives into Affyria: because we feared not the Lord, which was the source of all their miseries: what then should a king do to us? it they had one, he could afford them no protection from the judgments of the eternal King which they had provoked. As for Samaria, the merreppels of Israel, for king is cut off in the foam upon the water. In prophetic language, what shall be, is spoken of as already done; Hughes, the last king, being doomed to fall, weak as the truth which lies on the failure, and easily broken as the bubbles before the Affyrian army. [2.] Their idols shall be destroyed, and be as little able to help them as their king. He shall break down their altars; he shall spoil their images: the Affyrian monarch shall do it, the rod of God’s indignation. The inhabitants of Samaria shall fear because of the calves of Beth-aven; for them, lest they should be fenced by the enemy; or for themselves, as if now they were taken the land would be left destemples: for the people thereof shall mourn over it; of Beth-aven, or the worshippers of the calves in general shall lament their loss; and the priests thereof that rejoiced in it, who shall grieve, as particularly interred, for the glory thereof, because it is departed from it, and no more surrounded with crowds of worshippers: or the glory of Bethaven is now departed, their call being gone. It shall also be carried unto Affyria for a pretext to king Jureb, as a trophy of victory over Samaria and her gods. Ephraim shall receive shame, when they see their idols demulished, and their folly in trusting them unwillinged: and Israel shall be ashamed of his own counsel, in paying divine worship to such wretches. The high places also of Aven, of iniquity, the scenes where their idolatrics were committed, the sin of Israel shall be destroyed: the thorn and the thistle shall come up on their altars, being left in trains, and undisguered; and in their bitter distress they, the people who were wont to worship there, shall say to the mountain, Cover us; and to the hills, Fall on us; as if seeking even under them a covert from their miseries, and desiring to be hid from the wrath of God. Note, (1.)

them: the more importantly they were billeted, the more oblivious and refractory they grew. They fortified to Beuton, and burnt in spite to greater images, the abominable thing against which they were so particularly warned. All God’s kindness was thrown away upon them: they knew not that I healed them, but strife to their idols all their mercies: and my people are best to be befitting from me; both under a constant propensity to depart from him, and wilfully set upon their abominations, though his people, which relation aggravated their guilt exceedingly. They refused to return, v. 5. whether courted or threatened, they satisfied in evil: though they called them to the only High, to leave their idols, and return to the worship of the true God, now at all would send him, give him the glory due unto his name; or lift up their prayers to him for mercy, or their hearts from earthly vanities to high and heavenly things. Note, (1.) Such is the natural heart of man, ever prone to evil, perverse and oblivious, and the best have much to lament over the remainder of this inbred corruption. (2.) Much pains are often spent to little purpose by God’s faithful ministers; yet, though finners will not hear, God is thereby glorified in leaving them without excuse.

3. Heavy wrath is denounced against them. He shall not return into the land of Egypt, but the Affyrians shall be his king, whose yoke would be so much heavier, that they would with rather for the task-masters of Egypt again: or so strangely should they be befitting, or so far carried away captives, that they would be able to send no ambassadors to Egypt for assistance. And the future shall abide in all their cities; the destruction shall be long-continued, as well as universal; and shall continue his branches, and devour them; the villages and country around, or the inhabitants thereof; because of their own morals, which were their ruin. Note, Sinners have none to blame but themselves: they chast those ways which necessarily lead to their own predation.

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. 9. * 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. 10. * They shall walk after the LORD: * he shall rove like a lion: when he shall rove, then the children shall tremble from the west. 11. They shall tremble as a bird out of Egypt, and * as a dove out of the land of Affyria: and I will place them in their houses, saith the LORD. 12. Ephraim compaffect me about with lies, and the house of Israel with deceit: but Judah yet * ruleth with God, and is faithful with the saints.

Hosea 10:8

—12. We have here,

1. The reluctance a gracious God expresses in giving up the once chosen people of Israel to ruin. How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? See. Justice might well plead for their total exertion, and that, like the cities which were contumed with fire, Deut. xxix. 23. Israel should be given up to the same tremble vengeance; but mercy pleads for some mitigation or rejoin, if not for pardon; and God, as a father, with bowels of tendered compaffect, appears most backward to ruin even this rebellious son; and mercy prevails; mine heart is turned within me, my repentings are kindled together; not that God’s mind is capable of change, or that he knows repentance with regard to any of the dispositions of his providence or grace; but he speaks after the manner of men, and will change his manner of asking towards them, as we do when we alter our mind, and repent of our purposes. And most astonishing do these compactions of our God appear: Oh that the ungrateful Sinner would for a moment paide, and think of them: surely they must soften his obdurate heart.

Some give the words a different sense, How might I give thee up? See, how just would it be to do so? not the line of Sodom and her daughter cities were greater: but, to magnify his grace to Israel, though he spared not the one, he will have mercy on the other. Thus every redeemed soul as justly in himself deserved to perish as those who are cut off in their iniquity, but sovereign grace will be magnified in them.

2. God’s determination to spare them. I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger, in blotting out their name from under bravery, I will not return to destroy Ephraim; though I refer them in a little wrath, I will not enter into the city; though Jerusalem, Samaria, and the other cities, he was the same, their desolation shall not be perpetual, as those of Admah and Zeboim: for I am God, and not man: human compactions indeed would bring up have failed; but the divine are everlasting: or, though man is fickle and changeable, God is faithful, and true to his covenants, and will perform it notwithstanding all their proverbations. The holy One in the midst of thee. Christ is his people’s protection: for his sake, who stands in the midst of them to plead for them, they are spared; and, though they deserve punish-

ment, through him they obtain mercy. They shall meet after the Lord, the Messiah their Saviour, their Leader and Commander, the Cognition of their Situation, being satisfactorily drawn to him by the great and precious promises of his gospel. He shall rove like a lion; his word shall be heard far and near: when he shall rove, then the children shall tremble from the west; the children of God, whose hearts shall be deeply abetted with the preaching of the gospel: and this may respect the Gentiles, as well as the Jews, the gospel having chiefly spread that way hitherto. They shall tremble as a bird out of Egypt; and as a dove out of the land of Affyria, strong fertility, as the numerous deers when pursued by a bird of prey, to the covers of reddening grace: and I will place them in their houses, soak the Lord; in the church of God below, and shortly in the eternal mansions of glory above. Note, (1.) When we are most discouraged with the sense of our own destiny, we should still remember with whom we have to do: be it God, and not man; and as his majesty is, do is his mercy. (2.) The trembling of the Sinner is usually the first symptom of his return to God. (3.) When Christ is our captain, and we walk after him, we cannot fail of victory over every foe.

3. A heavy complaint still lies against Ephraim: He compaffect me about with lies, and the body of Israel with deceit. This seems to be a new discourse, and most properly should begin the next chapter. Their services were hypocritical, and their profession deceitful, and therefore an abhorrence in the light of the heart-searching God.

4. Judah is highly commended: Judah yet ruleth with God. The two tribes submitted to that Theorese God had established among them, and their kings ruled according to God’s law, and received their directions from him in their emergencies; which was their truerth honour and highest dignity: and be it faithful with the saints, cleaving to the worship of the said Mary, and treading in the steps of their pious progenitors; and, while they do so, they may assuredly expect God will be faithful to his promises, and preserve them to his everlasting kingdom. Note, (1.) They who make God their king shall be exalted to reign with him. (2.) The faithful will be executed with mansions in glory, when the hypocrite and unbeliever shall receive their portion in everlasting burnings.