Hosea 5

Hosea 5:1-3

1. COME, and let us return unto the LORD: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and will be bind us up. 2. After we days will he revive us, in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight. 3. Then I shall we

know, if we follow on to know the LORD: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain; as the latter and former rain unto the earth.

Their prayers promised a speedy return to God, in the close of the last chapter, and therefore the prophet, with the faithful souls among them, is represented exciting and encouraging them to put in execution the gracious purposes they had formed; for good desires should never be suffered to cool.

1. The matter of their exhortation to, Come, and let us return unto the Lord, from whom we have so greatly departed, renouncing now all other confidences and idol worship, and depending on him alone for help.

2. The motives on which they press such a return, are many and powerful.

(1.) They are assured of his help and healing. They had felt by dire experience his power to destroy, so; and the same hand was as able to save them, and would assuredly be stretched out to raise them from their depressed and wretched flats. After two days will he revive us, in the third day will he raise us up, and we shall live in his sight; though we lie as dead corpses in our graves during the captivity, he will not suffer so utterly to perish, but after a short time will restore us again to our own land, and give us again a sense of his favour, and the light of his countenance. And this may refer to their reformation from the Babylonish captivity, or look forward perhaps to their recovery from their perfect disposition. Some have supposed these words to relate to Christ rising on the third day from the dead; in whom also his people are risen, by virtue of their union with him. But though this be a great and glorious truth, I doubt much whether it be referred to in this prophecy. Nate, (1.) If we are torn and smitten, whatever be the instrument, God’s hand is to be acknowledged. (2.) Whatever the hurt of the sinner may be, however deep the wounds of his conscience, they are not past the divine physician’s cure. (3.) Nothing is so encouraging a ground to return to God, as a believing view of the riches of his grace in Christ Jesus.

(2.) They shall have their knowledge of God increased: Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord; or, as the words may be rendered, we shall know, we shall follow on to know the Lord; shall know the power, grace, and love; and encouraged by what we have attained, shall be reaching after greater measures of divine knowledge. Nate, (1.) The most desirable of all attainments, in the knowledge of God, for with this eternal life is inseparably connected, John xvii. 3. (2.) They who have any true knowledge of God, desire by prayer, the word, and ordinances, to increase it yet more abundantly, till they come where they shall know even as they are known.

(3.) They shall enjoy the richest consolations: His going forth is prepared as the morning; though God had left them to a dark night of affliction, like the returning sun, he was ready to arise upon them with healing in his wings; and here as the return of the morning, and cheating as the light of day, would be the return of his favour and grace to them, whenever they truly sought him: and he shall come unto us as the rain; as the latter and former rain unto the earth; in the abundance of his blessings, as their seasonable showers caused the harm to be filled with corn, and their vats to overflow with wine and oil. And these promises, whatever particular respect they had to the recovery of the Jews from Babylon, them to look forward to the Messiah’s days, the glorious fun of righteousness, whose blessed gospel, like the dew of heaven, should drop upon the souls of sinners, and fill the face of the world with fruit.

4. ¶ ¹ 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 early dew it goeth away. 5. Therefore have I heard them by the prophets: I have slain them by the words of my mouth, and thy judgments are as the light that goeth forth. 6. For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God, more than burnt-offerings. 7. But they like men have transgressed the covenant: there have they dealt treacherously against me. 8. Gilead is a city of them that work iniquity; and is polluted with blood. 9. And as troops of robbers wait for a man, so the company of priests murder in the way by consent; for they commit lewdness. 10. I have seen an horrible thing in the house of Israel: there is the whoredom of Ephraim, Israel is defiled. 11. ¶ Also, O Judah, he hath set an harvest for thee, when I returned the captivity of my people.

Hosea 5:4-11

There appeared promising hopes that a reconciliation would be effected: but we have here.

1. Their hypocrisy, and the concern God expressed therein: O Ephraim, &c. O Judah, what shall I do unto thee? what could be

Before Chall be done that he had not done to reclaim them; and though it had been hitherto unreflected, he speaks with reluctance, as yet unwilling to give them up, though they had so justly deferred it; for your goodness is at a morning cloud, and at the early days to push away, so short-lived was the reformation under Jehu, and in the days of Hezekiah and Josiah. Note, (1.) God’s compass to sinners is amazing, and his patience and feelings with them must leave them without excuse. (2.) Many begin well, and for a while make a fair religious profession, whose goodness hath no more ablaloid than the morning cloud, and vanishes as the early dear before the sun of persecution, or the blush of integration.

2. God had severely rebuked them for their unfaithfulness. Therefore have I heard them by the prophets, sharply removing their hypocrisy, and cutting them to the heart with denunciations of wrath: I know faith them by the words of my mouth, denoting them to death, and then it is as sure as if every word was a drawn sword, and the judgments are as the light that goth forth: God’s warnings were clear and plain, and the afflictions they had evidently came from his hand, so that their impenitence was inexcusable, and all that came upon them must make appear altogether righteous and just. Note, (1.) The hearts of sinners are hard as the rock, and knotty as the rigid oak; God’s ministers must therefore use the sharp two-edged sword, and how them by the terrors of the Lord, and with the remonstrances of their bairdets and ingratitude. (2.) The cherency, God pronounces against the ungodly, if they do not repent, are sure to be executed, they are already as dead men.

3. He tells them what he required of them. For I deferred mercy, not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt-offerings; for these had in themselves no intrinsic value, their only use was to point out the necessity of an atonement, and to lead them to a Saviour; and when they refied in the form of godliness, whilst they neglected the power of it, the most expensive sacrifices were of no avail. The thing God required was their hearts, not their beasts; that they should know, acknowledge, worship and serve him as their Lord and God, and exercise mercy, chisel, rendered goodness, ver. 4. comprehending the whole scope of practical godliness, and proceeding from the divine principle of the love of God and man in the heart; and this must ever be remembered, since without it all professions of religion are but an empty name.

4. They flamtically transgressed the common like Adam the first sinner, or like men, the wicked ones in the old world, or the multitude of the ungodly who still abound; there have they dealt treacherously against me; even in the very sacrifices they offered, and their other religious acts, they played the hypocrisy, their hearts were wrong, and their very services therefore an abomination. And this was evident from their practice: Gilrod is a city of them that work iniquity, the whole country was given up to it, or that particular city Ramoth-Gilead, inhabited by priests and Levites, whose wickedness was more criminal, and the influence of their bad examples more extensively fatal; for none do such irreparable hurt to men’s fouls, or wound the reach of God for deeply, as profligate worldly idolatrous priests; and is polluted with blood, for ungodly priests are the hotterest periscences. Probably, this being a city of refuge, a bribe would protect wilful murderers, and for filthy lucre the innocent were delivered into the hands of the avenger of blood. Nor is it a wonder to see them fell men’s bodies, when we daily see the more criminal fate of men’s fouls. And as troops of robbers want for a man, in the company of priests murder in the way to conjoin; the general body of them was corrupt, and they connived at and upheld each other in their wicked ways, and were ever ready to afflict each other to periscute or oppress those against whom they bore country; or they murder in the way to Sheldon, lying in what for those pious Israelites who turned their backs on the calves, and went up to Jerusalem to worship. They commit loudness, or mercy, the most infamous crunch, with deep contrivance, as the word signifies; I have seen an horrible thing in the house of Israel; there is the whereafter of Ephraim, corporal and spiritual, Israel is defiled, the whole nation addicted to idolatry and loudness. Aye, O’ Judah, he hath set an baron for thee, the time is fixed, and thou art ripe for ruin: or the words may be rendered to another sense, and then the prophecy closes with a promise of mercy, But, O’ Judah, he hath set an baron for thee, God hath joy in store for thee, when I returned, or return, the captivity of my people from Babylon, which would occasion great gladness through all the tribes. Note, (1.) Sin is a horrible thing; it should shock us wherever we lie it committed. (2.) God’s grace triumphs over the provocations of his people, and when we deserve punishment, his thoughts towards us are thoughts of peace and not of evil.