Hosea 7

Hosea 7:1-7

In this chapter we have, 1. A general charge drawn up against Israel for those crimes which had slipped the current of God’s favours, ver. 1, 2. 2. A particular occupation. (1.) Of the court; the king, princes and judges, ver. 3—7. (2.) Of the country. Ephraim

is charged with contrasting to the nation, ver. 8. Confessors and Admirals of the same, ver. 9—11. ingratitude to God for his service, ver. 13. incorrigialness under his judgments, ver. 14. contempt of God, ver. 15. and hypocrisy in their pretenses to return to him, ver. 16. They are also threatened with a severe chastisement, which shall humble them, ver. 12. and if that prevail not, then with an utter destruction, ver. 13. particularly their princes, ver. 16.

1. WHEN I would have healed Israel, then the iniquity of Ephraim was discovered, and the wickedness of Samaria: for they commit fathood: and the thief cometh in, and the troop of robbers spoileth without. 2. And they confide not in their hearts, that I remember all their wickedness: I now their own doings have been the abour, they are before my face. 3. They make the king glad with their wickedness, and the princes with their ties. 4. They are all adulterers, as an oven heated by the baker, who ceaseth from raising after he hath kneaded the dough, until it be kevened. 5. In the day of our king, the princes have made him sick with bottles of wine, he stretched out his hand with corners. 6. For they have made ready their heart like an oven, whilst they lay in wait: their baker firepeeth all the night, in the morning it burneth as a flaming fire. 7. They are all hot as an oven, and have devoured their judges; all their kings are fallen, there is none among them that calleth unto me.

2. What God had done for his people. I would have healed, or I healed Israel; reffering their civil state under Jeroboam the son of Joath to a flourishing condition, 2 Kings xiv. 25, 26, or under Jehu, destroying the worship of Baal, 2 Kings x. 24—30, and thus by his mercies he called upon them to forsake all their idolatries, and turn to him with their whole hearts.

3. They refused to be healed, when God had dealt with them in so much mercy; then the iniquity of Ephraim was discovered, and the wickedness of Samaria, the golden calves, were still kept, and their idolatries grew more open and infamous, and with them a train of iniquities entered.

(1.) They commit fathood in their transactions with men, perfidious and deceiving, and in their professions to God hypocritical.

(2.) They were a set of bandits; the thief cometh in, and the troop of robbers spoileth without; some interpret this of the judgment of God upon them, who, for their perfidy to each other, were given up to be devoured one of another.

(3.) They left God far above out of their sight. They confide not in their hearts that I remember all their wickedness, either careless about it, or infidel, as if God did not see, or would not punish them; though he is the jealous God, who will in no wife spare the guilty, and from whom nothing is hid, nothing is secret. Now their men doing their duty then about, their sins are open, multiplied, notorious; which every observer may discover, and much more God’s all-being yet; they are before my face: some understand this of the punishment their sins should bring upon them; as when Samaria was befieged, then it would be past doubt that God observed, and would punish them for their iniquities. Note, (1.) Every sin has for its root infidelity. We promise ourselves impunity in our disregard of God’s threatenings, and then dare to offend. (2.) Sooner or later God will convince the sinner that he remembers his ways.

(4.) They made the king glad with their wickedness, and the princes with their ties. The people readily conformed to their ordinances, and worshipped the calves, whilst the priests flattered them with assurances, that God was as well served at Dan or Bethel, as at Jerusalem: or, to curry favour, they were ever ready to blacken those whom the princes disliked, and with lying praises to cry up their favourites.

(5.) They are all adulterers, king, princes, priests, and people, both corporally and spiritually inflamed with lust, as an oven heated by the baker, v. 4—7, who waiteth till his dough is leavened, and the oven thoroughly heated, and then puts in the loaves: so do these adulterers entertain their corrupt desires, and contrive how to gratify them; and when these schemes are ripe, they lie in wait, ver. 6. to perpetrate their wickedness. Note, They who thus burn in their lusts, may expect shortly to burn in hell.

(6.) They were given up to drunkenness and revelling. In the day of our king, his birth-day, or the anniversary of his coronation, or some festival instituted by him, then they caroused without restraint, the princes have made him felt with births of wine, for this is one of the curses attendant upon drunkenness; he stretched out his hand with sormers; they grew daring over their cups, and with the king at their head made a jolt of religion, and blasphemed the most High; for when men are intoxicated with liquor, they flock at no impiety or wickedness.

They

They have made their hearts like an even, their drunkenness hath set fire to their heirs, they lie in wait to listen their gray. As the baker kindles the fire, and sleeping will morning finds his own hot, so burned their loud hearts, every one neighing after his neighbour’s wife, ‘for. v. 8. Note, Drunkenness is not only highly criminal in itself, but it is the door at which every enormity enters uncontended.

[7.] They have devoured their judges, but as an even in wrath against them, and killing those magistrates who attempted to punish them for their crimes. All their kings are fallen; they were regicides, and joined with successive warpers, to murder and moneer’s after another.

[8.] They were funk in hardened fluidity. There is none among them that called into me; neither the ravages committed at home, nor the inroads of their enemies from abroad, nor any of the distresses in which they were involved, turned their thoughts to God, or brought them to their knees. Note, They who live without prayer, shall continue hardened, and perish in their sins.

8. Ephraim, he hath ‘mixed himself among the people, Ephraim is a cake not turned. 9. Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knoweth it not: yea, gray hairs are ‘here and there upon him, yet he knoweth not. 10. And ’the pride of Israel witheth to his face, and ’they do not return to the LORD their God, nor fork him for all this. 11. ‘Ephraim also is like a silly dove without heart: ’they call to Egypt, they go to Affyria. 12. When they shall go, ‘I will spread my net upon them, I will bring them down as the fowls of the heaven, I will chaffish them as their congregation hath heard. 13. Wo unto them, for they have fled from me: destruction unto them, because they have transgressed against me: though ‘I have redeemed them, yet they have spoken lies against me. 14. And ’they have not cried unto me with their heart, when they howled upon their beds: they assemble themselves for corn and wine, and they rebel against me. 15. Though I have bound, ‘and strengthened their arms, yet do they imagine mischief against me. 16. ‘They return, but not to the most High: ’they are like a deceitful bow: their princes shall fall by the sword for ’the rage of their tongue: this shall be their decision in the land of Egypt.

Hosea 7:8-10

The sins and punishments of Israel are here interwoven.

2. They were mingled among the heathen, v. 8. either by intermarriage contrary to God’s law, or by their alliances with them, and fullestness of affliction from them; or worth of all, by harthing their idolaters, and conforming to their customs. Ephraim is a cake not turned, burnt on one side, and dough on the other, and therefore unfit for life: the mixture of heathen (specifitious destroyed all the acceptableness of their worship to God. Note, (1.) Had company is ever corrupting; they who mingle with such, will grow like them. (2.) Many providers are made up of unconfiscant, and like a cake not turned, are ever bringing to extremes.

3. They were infirmable of the decays under which they were halting to dissolution. Strangers have devoured his strength, See a Kings nov. 7. xv. 19, 20, 29, and he knoweth it not, is not feasible of the loss sustained; yea, gray hairs are here and there upon him, the speaking symptoms of old age and death approaching, yet he knoweth not, is not aware of his danger, nor forcible have not to be in the preceptor of ruin. Note, Deceitions in religion, like their grey hairs, shall infirmishly no mercy, and though others perceive them distinctly, the backslider himself is not aware of them.

4. They were proud and unhumbled, all the mortifying providence they had undergone did not bring down their high thoughts of themselves, nor engage their penitent return to God. Notwithstanding their growing workmen and hastening ruin, they do not return to the Lord their God, nor seek him for all this; and this is the worst symptom of a sinner’s case, when he still expresses prayer before God.

5. They were not a silly dove without heart, both foolish and tithorical, and instead of looking to God in their distress, they call to Egypt for affliction, 2 Kings xvii. 4. They go to Affyria for help, the people who had ever been the implausible enemies of their nation, and waited only an opportunity to devour them. So doubtful is the sinner, and courts thofe as his hell friends who are his tempers and destroyers; but God will make them not their folly; when they shall go, I will spread my net upon them, and bring them into difficulties inextricable; I will bring them down as the fowls of heaven from the height of pride, I will chaffish them as their congregation hath heard, leading upon them the judgments which they had heard so often read in his word, Less. 2nd. Deut. xxviii. Note, (1.) They who leave

the good ways of God, will soon find themselves interested in misery. (2.) Pride must come down in humiliation, or be told down by divine judgments. (3.) We should well observe the warnings of God’s word, for not one jot or tittle of that shall fail.

5. They were revolvers, rebellious, hypocritical, and ungrateful, notwithstanding all that God had done for them. 100 unto them; they rush on their own ruin, for they have fled from me; rejected his service, deferred his whiskey, and placed no dependence upon him; following their calves, and seeking to their neighbours in time of trouble, instead of God. Destruction unto them, lure and invariable, bound; they have transgressed against me, violating his laws by the most atrocious crimes, and there aggravated by all the unmolition mercies they had received as God’s hands; though I have redeemed them of old to often, and of late to eminently out of the hands of their enemies, 2 Kings xiv. 25. yet have they spoken lies against me, letting up their idols, or hypocritically pretending reformation; or denying his word in the mouth of his prophets, or scientifically disbelieving his being or his providence. And they have not tried unto me with their heart, even when their sufferings extorted prayers from their lips, when they healed upon their side under God’s house hand, or in their idol temples the beds of their adultery. They wanted to be rid of their fufficiency, not of their sins; and then their loudest roaring were no better than the howlings of dogs, for no prayer can be acceptable to God, whilst unrepented iniquities are still embraced. They assemble themselves for corn and wine, there were the grand objects of their defies; they fought no spiritual blefings, but only afloat meat for their lufts; no marvel therefore such supplications were rejected. And they rebel against me, rejecting his government, and seeking to dethrone him, in order to exalt their idols in his fear. Though I have bound and strengthened their arms, healing their breaches under death and Jeroboam, yet they imagine mischief against me, perfecting his prophets, who rebuked them in God’s name for their sins, or giving to their idols the honour of their forefes, and charging God as the author of all their evils; with halest ingratitude thus requiring him. They return, they made a show of doing so, as in the times of John, but not in the most High, they quickly relapsed into idolatry; or not on high, their affections are not led up to high and heavenly things, but grand still on earth; they are like a deceitful bow, whose arrow miffes the mark, or breaks in the arches; and as he draws the firing; so did they disappoint the expeditions which their predictions had raised. Therefore their princes shall fall by the sword of the Affyrians, or of conspirators, for the rage of their tongue, their blasphemies against God, and reviling of his prophets: this shall be their decision in the land of Egypt, who will mock at their calamities, instead of bringing them afflicted. Note, (1.) The sinner’s tongue shall at last fall upon him. (2.) They who by their wickedness bring themselves into trouble, instead of pity justly meet with decision.