Hosea 12
SIBThe Israelites flatter themselves that their idols, or their Assyrian or Egyptian allies, will help and protect them; whereas, notwithstanding the labour and expense they cost them, they will at last be the instruments of ruin to their kingdom
Hosea 12:2
Yea, even the kingdom of Judah shall, by the Assyrians, Chaldeans, and Romans, share a punishment similar to that of the Israelites, on account of their wickedness
Hosea 12:3-6
And, since ye have so degenerated from the piety of Jacob your father, who at Peniel wrestled with God himself, the angel of the covenant, the infinite Sovereign, who gives being to all his promises, and by strong faith and earnest supplications obtained the remarkable blessing, and at Beth-el had the covenant of God confirmed to himself, and to you in him, see that, by faith and repentance, ye turn to this God as your God: and, while ye believe his mercy, wisdom, and equity, study to imitate him therein, and wait upon him in all the ordinances of his grace; for whatever is necessary to enable you to fulfil your duty. 7, 8. But ye Israelites, like the Heathen Canaanites, make a trade of cheating and take delight in oppressing your neighbours; and yet ye impudently pretend that your success and wealth are an evidence of your being chargeable with no gross iniquity. 9, 10. Nevertheless I, the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, will, after the captivity in Babylon, and especially in the apostolic and millennial periods, bring you into my church, give you the ordinances thereof; and, as I have, so I will instruct you by my prophets and gospel ministers in divers forms
Hosea 12:11
And yet now, after all my instructions, not only Ramoth-gilead, a city of priests and refuge, and Gilgal, once so famous for the mercies and tabernacle of God and tents of his people, but all the country on both sides of Jordan, are polluted with the worship of useless idols and their altars, as numerous, and as much condemned by God, as heaps of stones in the furrows
Hosea 12:12-14
Yea, notwithstanding God has raised you up from so low an origin as a mere keeper of sheep who was obliged to serve like a slave for his wife; and miraculously, by Moses, conducted you from Egypt and through the wilderness; ye have bitterly provoked him to anger with your wickedness; and therefore shall he avenge all your reproaches against him and his prophets upon you, in rendering you base and contemptible
REFLECTIONS UPON CHAP. XII.—Alas, what a cheat many put upon their own souls, and what vexation and misery they prepare for themselves, who make creatures their confidence! God often sharply corrects those who are right in the main, that he may draw and keep them still nearer to himself: and great—lasting is that honour which is obtained by intimacy with him; and glorious the victories which saints obtain by their prayers and tears. Thrice happy are that who have august memorials of God inscribed on their heart, and who can improve his declared relation to them as an effectual spur to a genuine repentance. The alarming is the situation when neither the kindness of God nor the examples of pious progenitors animate us to an holy conversation: and awful is it to consider that, in mercantile dealings, men should be so rarely honest in God’s sight. Most men think all is well if they grow rich, and retain a fair character before the world. Fat infinite is the mercy of God; for his grace abounds who had abounded! Strict is the account which God keeps of all the mercies that he bestows on us, and of our improvement of them. And all our education and advancements are his free gifts. But, if we employ our grandeur and wealth to his dishonour, it is but just that he should strip us of them, and punish us shameful transgressions with shameful punishments. 4