Hosea 12

Hosea 12:1-6

Pope. l. 18. He v. 16. See xii. 11. Rech. vii. 15. Mat. ii. 4. John xii. 34. Mat. ii. 11. Zach. xi. 8. 1. HEAR ye this, ‘O priests, and hearken, ye house of Israel, and give ye ear, O house of the king; for judgment is toward you, because ye have been a share on Mizpeh, and a net spread upon Tabor. 2. And the revolvers are ‘profound to make slaughter, though I have been a rebuke of them all. 3. ‘I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hid from me: for now, O Ephraim, thou committed whoredom, and Israel is defiled. 4. They will not frame their doings to turn into their God: for the spirit of whoredoms is in the mild of them, and they have not known the LORD. 5. And ’the pride of Israel doth testify to his face: therefore shall Israel and Ephraim fall in their iniquity: Judah also shall fall with them. 6. ‘They shall go with their flocks, and with their herds to seek the LORD: but they shall not find him, he hath withdrawn himself from them. 7. ‘They have dealt treacherously against the LORD: for they have begotten strange children: now shall ‘a month devour them with their portions. Again the prophet returns to the charge, and cites the king, priests, and people of Israel, to hear their accusation and doom from God, who knew all their wickedness, however hypocritically covered, or committed in secret. Note, (1.) No sinner is to great as to be above God’s judgment, or so mean as to be overlooked by him (2.) God knoweth the hidden things of darkness; nor can the shadow of death hide the workers of iniquity. 1. He charges a variety of crimes upon them: [1.] They studied to draw their neighbours to join in their idolatries; Ye have been a share on Mizpeh, and a net spread upon Tabor; too insinuous, where probably their idol alters blood near the borders of Judah, as shares set by hunters to escape their game. Some have ingreffed, that here Jeroboam pleased gives to see who went up to Jerusalem at the solemn feasts, that they might be protected for it on their return. Note, They who under the cloak of friendship would opace us into sin, are not most mortal enemies. [2.] The revolvers are profound to make slaughter; appolition being the bitterest persecutors; they who had themselves revolved from God, had shares to murder those who refused to comply with their wicked ways: or, as the wards may be interpreted, they offered with sacrifices with a chew of devotion; to provide noble entomements, in order to induce the unwary to join with them; though I have been a rebuke of them all; God by his prophet had awfully and repeatedly warned them of their wickedness, yet they still perished in it; and this greatly aggravated their guilt. [3.] They committed whoredom: the spirit of whoredom possessed their hearts, and the acts of it defiled their bodies; this God saw, who feareth the heart, and whose eye no deeds of darkness, however secretly committed, can escape. Let guilty sinners know it and tremble. [4.] They were wilfully ignorant, and obstinately perverse: They will not frame their doings to turn into their God; utterly averse to all the means and methods which might lead to their conversion; and they have not known the Lord; for indeed they desired not the knowledge of his ways. [5.] The pride of Israel doth testify to his face; so upon, avowed, and nonviolent, they were grown infolent in sin, and past shame, as their very looks declared. [6.] They doth treacherously against the Lord; as a wife that leaves her husband for murder: they have baptism strange children; intermingling in marriages with the heathen, or bringing up their children in the same idolatrics they themselves committed; and dreadful is that parents’ guilt, whose children’s murdered souls, destroyed by his example, or had instructions, shall cry for vengeance against him. 2. He pronounces sentence upon them: Judgment is towards you, v. 1. God is ready to call them to his Son, and make them know his terrible wrath. They shall fall in their iniquity; under the lust of unrepented guilt: and Judah shall fall with them; who copying their wicked ways, shall partake of their ruin, led captive with them into the same strange land. So surely shall company on sin suffer together; and they who perish in their iniquities, shall in them assuredly perish: nor shall their forced reture to God in the day of their distress, stand them in any stead. Though they go with their flocks and their herds to seek the Lord, their hearts being unhumbled, and their prayers merely executed by the apprehension of danger, God will pay no regard to them; they shall not find him, so as to obtain any favour or protection; he hath withdrawn himself from them, and left them to their deserved ruin. There is a time when God will be no more entreated; and they who will not know the day of their visitation, shall be disregarded when they cry in the day of their calamity: and now their swift destruction approaches, a much shall devour them with their portion; they, and all they possess, shall be shortly ruined. Or this may refer to their new-moms and sacrifices, on which they trusted; but so far from being of sin to them, their hypocritical services added but to their guilt, and hastened the wrath of God upon them. Note, (1.) The sinner’s day is near, when vengeance will overtake him. (2.) They who take up with their portion in this world, will find to their sorrow how wretched a choice they have made. 8. ‘Blow ye the cornet in Gibeah, and the trumpet (Chap. xii. in Ramah: cry aloud at Beth-avon: after thee, O Benjamin. 9. Ephraim shall be defolate in the day of rebuke: among the tribes of Israel have I made known that which shall surely be. 10. The princes of Judah were like them that ‘remove the bound: therefore I will pour out my wrath upon them like water. 11. Ephraim is oppressed, and broken in judgment: because he willingly walked after the commandment. 12. Therefore will be unto Ephraim as a moth: and to the house of Judah as rostreness. 13. When Ephraim saw his fickness, and Judah saw his wound, then ‘went Ephraim to the Affyrian, and sent to ‘king Jacob: yet could he not heal you, nor cure you of your wound. 14. For I will be unto Ephraim as a lion, and as ‘young lion to the house of Judah: I, even I will tear and go away; I will take away, and none shall rescue him. 15. ¶ I will go and return to my place, till ’they § acknowledge their offence, and seek my face: ‘in their affliction they will seek me early.

In this chapter we have, 1. A high charge drawn up both against Israel and Judah for their sins, which were the ground of God’s controversy with them, ver. 1, 2. Particularly the sin of Israel and injustice which Ephraim justifies himself in, ver. 8. And the sin of idolatry, ver. 12, by which God is prevailed to contend with them, ver. 14. 2. The aggravations of their sins are the human God put upon their father Jacob, ver. 3—5. The advancement of them into a people from love and mean beginnings, ver. 12, 13. And the provision he had made for their spiritual welfare by the prophets he put them, ver. 10. 3. It will to the unconquered to turn to God, ver. 6. 4. An intimation of mercy that God had in force for them, ver. 9.

1. Ephraim feedeth on wind, and followeth after the eaft-wind; he daily increaseth lies and desolation, and they do make a covenant with the Affyrians, * and oil is carried into Egypt. 2. * The LORD hath also a controversy with Judah, and will punish Jacob according to his ways; * according to his doings will he recompense him. 3. He took his brother * by the heel in the womb, and by his strength * he had power with God: 4. Yes, he had power over the angel, and prevailed: he wept and made supplication unto him: he found him * in Beth-el, and there he spake with us. 5. Even the LORD God of holts, the LORD is his * memorial. 6. Therefore * turn thou to thy God: keep mercy and judgement, and wait on thy God continually.

We have here,

1. The folly of Ephraim; he feedeth on wind, and followeth after the eaft-wind, entertaining fallacious hopes, and courting his idols, or his heathen neighbours, for assistance; a habiter as vain as purifying the wind: he daily increaseth lies and desolation, his strange gods and foreign alliances, which will prove a lie in his right hand, and bring ruin upon him; and they do make a covenant with Affyria, 2 King xv. 19. thinking to secure their safety thereby; and oil is carried into Egypt, to practise their favour and help; but neither shall be of any service to them, but will help to impoverish them and hasten their destruction. Note, They who trust on creature confidences will find them not only deceitful, but ruinous.

2. The Lord hath also a controversy with Judah, who now began to degenerate and fall into idolatry, and therefore he will punish Jacob according to his ways; according to his doings will he recompense him, discovering his sins and taking vengeance for them.

3. Their degeneracy from the piety of their forefathers was a great aggravation of their guilt. He, Jacob, took his brother by

Hosea 12:8-15

The judgment was denounced, and lo! it is even now at the door. 1. The alarm is founded: Blow ye the cornet in Gibeah, and the trumpet in Ramah; the sinner’s towns of Judah, to let them know the approach of the enemy: cry aloud at Beth-avon: after thee, O Benjamin; the enemy is on thy back, and ready to advance from the conquest of Israel to invade Judah. When our neighbour’s house is on fire, it is high time to look to our own. The ruin of those who are cut off in their sins, should be a warning to the survivors. 2. The destruction of Ephraim had been long foretold: Ephraim shall be defolate in the day of rebuke; led captive by Salmaness: among the tribes of Israel have I made known that which shall surely be; the prophets repeatedly gave them notice of what would be the consequence of their sins; but they rejected their admonitions, and disbelieved their prophecies, and therefore were

were without excuse. Nate, Sinners turn a deaf ear to the denunciations of God’s wrath, and would fain treat them as mere chimeras, but they will find them terrible realities, and things that shall surely be.

3. The princes of Judah took no warning by their neighbours fall, but equalled them in iniquity, and therefore must perish together with them. The princes of Judah were like them that remove the land mark; paid no regard to property, but oppressed their inferiors, and seized their possessions: or figureively taken, they refused to be kept within any bounds by God’s law, and broke through every refrain: therefore I will pass out my wrath upon them like water; which, as the deluge, shall sweep them away. Nate, They who abide their power to oppression, shall be made to know there is a judge above, the patron of the injured, and the avenger of their wrongs.

4. Ephraim’s fin and ruin are age a mentioned. [1.] Their sin: They willingly walked after the commandment; obeying the orders of Jeroboam and his idolatrous successors, who enjoined the worship of the calves: and far from opposing these impious commands, the people, very well pleased with the idolatrous worship, readily complied with them. For this God threatens, [2.] To punish them. Ephraim is oppressed, and broken in judgment; this was a part of their immediate sufferings, being ruled by tyrants, and broken with the oppression and injustice of their princes and magistrates; and this was a just judgment upon them. They who willingly became slaves to their princes humour, deferred the galling yoke laid upon them. Servility invites the exercise of tyranny. Therefore will I be sent Ephraim as a moth; silently, and by degrees weakening them, and bringing them to destruction: and to the house of Judah as rattlesnab in the house, that spreads and destroys the substance; or a worm, that eats into the heart of the tree, and it withers away. Nate, Vengeance comes slowly, that sinners may have space to repent; but if they neglect the warnings given them, they are sure to be undone at the last.

5. The methods they took to help their weakness were sinful, and proved ineffectual: When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah his wound, then went Ephraim to the affirmen, and put in king Jacob; probably the same with Pul, or Tiglath-pilefer, for a King: xv. 19. xvi. 7. xvii. 3. yet could be not bad you, nor care you of your wound; on the contrary, he increased instead of relieving their malady, and helped forward their turn, a King: xv. 20. a Chron. xxviii. 20. So surely will they, who fly to creature dependances, and fortake God, find them miserable comforters, and rue their foolish choices. And thus also, when a soul, under conviction of sins, flies to his sorrows, repentance, prayers, duties, for help, instead of Christ, he will find, instead of growing better, the evil will but be exasperated.

6. Provoked by such conduct, God threatens them with heavier judgments; before he was but as a moth; but now I will be sent Ephraim as a lion, and as a young lion in the house of Judah; devouring and destroying them by his judgments, and by the sword of the Allyrians: I, even I will tear and go away as a lion, fearless of being profited; I will take away, as that enormous knell drags the prey to his den, and save shall refuse him; those who survived of the people of Judah and Israel, should be carried captives, and come be able to release them from this afflictive dispensation, till he should return in mercy unto them. I will go and return to my place, abandoning them for a season to their miseries, till his chastisements had humbled their stubborn hearts, and they acknowledge their affirms, taking shame for their abominations, and confessing the justice of their punishment, and seek my face for pardon and restoration: for in their affliction, brought to a sense of their sins, by the sufferings they endure, they will seek me early; with fervent importunity, rising up-belimes, and crying for mercy; and then there is hope their miseries may come to an end. Nate, (1.) When lesser chastisements are ineffectual, God will make sinners feel his heavy hard. (2.) If he departs from the soul, then nothing but misery is left behind him. (3.) Though God sometimes appears utterly to fortake his people, he wears only for their humiliations and prayers, in order to return and be gracious unto them. (4.) True penitents are always liberal in acknowledgments and self-repenaches. (5.) The afflictions, however severe, that drive the sinner to seek God’s face, are in reality the greatest mercies.