mh_parser/vol_split/28 - Hosea/Chapter 3.xml

<div2 id="Hos.iv" n="iv" next="Hos.v" prev="Hos.iii" progress="75.33%" title="Chapter III">
<h2 id="Hos.iv-p0.1">H O S E A.</h2>
<h3 id="Hos.iv-p0.2">CHAP. III.</h3>
<p class="intro" id="Hos.iv-p1" shownumber="no">God is still by the prophet inculcating the same
thing upon this careless people, and much in the same manner as
before, by a type or sign, that of the dealings of a husband with
an adulterous wife. In this chapter we have, I. The bad character
which the people of Israel now had; they were, as is said of the
Athenians (<scripRef id="Hos.iv-p1.1" osisRef="Bible:Acts.17.16" parsed="|Acts|17|16|0|0" passage="Ac 17:16">Acts xvii. 16</scripRef>),
"wholly given to idolatry," <scripRef id="Hos.iv-p1.2" osisRef="Bible:Hos.3.1" parsed="|Hos|3|1|0|0" passage="Ho 3:1">ver.
1</scripRef>. II. The low condition which they should be reduced to
by their captivity, and the other instances of God's controversy
with them, <scripRef id="Hos.iv-p1.3" osisRef="Bible:Hos.3.2-Hos.3.4" parsed="|Hos|3|2|3|4" passage="Ho 3:2-4">ver. 2-4</scripRef>. III.
The blessed reformation that should at length be wrought upon them
in the latter days, <scripRef id="Hos.iv-p1.4" osisRef="Bible:Hos.3.5" parsed="|Hos|3|5|0|0" passage="Ho 3:5">ver.
5</scripRef>.</p>
<scripCom id="Hos.iv-p1.5" osisRef="Bible:Hos.3" parsed="|Hos|3|0|0|0" passage="Ho 3" type="Commentary"/>
<scripCom id="Hos.iv-p1.6" osisRef="Bible:Hos.3.1-Hos.3.5" parsed="|Hos|3|1|3|5" passage="Ho 3:1-5" type="Commentary"/><div class="Commentary" id="Hos.iv-p1.7">
<h4 id="Hos.iv-p1.8">Idolatry of Israel; The Prophet's
Remonstrances; Promises to the Penitent. (<span class="smallcaps" id="Hos.iv-p1.9">b.
c.</span> 760.)</h4>
<p class="passage" id="Hos.iv-p2" shownumber="no">1 Then said the <span class="smallcaps" id="Hos.iv-p2.1">Lord</span> unto me, Go yet, love a woman beloved of
<i>her</i> friend, yet an adulteress, according to the love of the
<span class="smallcaps" id="Hos.iv-p2.2">Lord</span> toward the children of Israel,
who look to other gods, and love flagons of wine.   2 So I
bought her to me for fifteen <i>pieces</i> of silver, and
<i>for</i> a homer of barley, and a half homer of barley:   3
And I said unto her, Thou shalt abide for me many days; thou shalt
not play the harlot, and thou shalt not be for <i>another</i> man:
so <i>will</i> I also <i>be</i> for thee.   4 For the children
of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a
prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without
an ephod, and <i>without</i> teraphim:   5 Afterward shall the
children of Israel return, and seek the <span class="smallcaps" id="Hos.iv-p2.3">Lord</span> their God, and David their king; and shall
fear the <span class="smallcaps" id="Hos.iv-p2.4">Lord</span> and his goodness in
the latter days.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Hos.iv-p3" shownumber="no">Some think that this chapter refers to
Judah, the two tribes, as the adulteress the prophet married
(<scripRef id="Hos.iv-p3.1" osisRef="Bible:Hos.1.3" parsed="|Hos|1|3|0|0" passage="Ho 1:3"><i>ch.</i> i. 3</scripRef>) represented
the <i>ten tribes;</i> for this was not to be divorced, as the ten
tribes were, but to be left desolate for a long time, and then to
return, as the two tribes did. But these are called the <i>children
of Israel,</i> which was the ten tribes, and therefore it is more
probable that of them this parable, as well as that before, is to
be understood. <i>Go,</i> and repeat it, says God to the prophet;
<i>Go yet again.</i> Note, For the conviction and reduction of
sinners it is necessary that precept be upon precept, and line upon
line. If they will not believe one sign, try another, <scripRef id="Hos.iv-p3.2" osisRef="Bible:Exod.4.8-Exod.4.9" parsed="|Exod|4|8|4|9" passage="Ex 4:8,9">Exod. iv. 8, 9</scripRef>. Now,</p>
<p class="indent" id="Hos.iv-p4" shownumber="no">I. In this parable we may observe,</p>
<p class="indent" id="Hos.iv-p5" shownumber="no">1. God's goodness and Israel's badness
strangely serving for a foil to each other, <scripRef id="Hos.iv-p5.1" osisRef="Bible:Hos.3.1" parsed="|Hos|3|1|0|0" passage="Ho 3:1"><i>v.</i> 1</scripRef>. Israel is as a woman <i>beloved of
her friend,</i> either of him that has married her or of him that
only courts her, and <i>yet an adulteress;</i> such is the case
between God and Israel. We say of those whose affection is mutual
that there is <i>no love lost</i> between them; but here we find a
great deal of the love even of God himself lost and thrown away
upon an unworthy ungrateful people. The God of Israel retains a
very great love for the <i>children of Israel,</i> and yet they are
an evil and adulterous generation. <i>Be astonished, O heavens! at
this, and wonder, O earth!</i> (1.) That God's goodness has not put
an end to their badness; the Lord loves them, has a kindness for
them, and is continually showing kindness to them; they know it,
they cannot but own it, that he has been as a friend and Father to
them; and yet they <i>look to other gods,</i> gods that they can
see, and to the love of which they are drawn by the eye; they look
to them with an eye of adoration (they offer up all their services
to them) and with an eye of dependence (they expect all their
comforts from them); if they were restrained from bowing the knee
to idols, yet they gave them an amorous glance, and had <i>eyes
full of that</i> spiritual <i>adultery.</i> And they loved
<i>flagons of wine;</i> they joined with idolaters because they
lived merrily and drank hard; they had a kindness for <i>other
gods</i> for the sake of the plenty of good wine with which they
had been sometimes treated in their temples. Idolatry and
sensuality commonly go together; those that make a god of their
belly, as drunkards do, will easily be brought to make a god of any
thing else. God's priests were to <i>drink no wine</i> when they
went in to minister, and his Nazarites none at all. But the
worshippers of other gods <i>drank wine in bowls;</i> nay, no less
than <i>flagons of wine</i> would content them. (2.) That their
badness had not stopped the current of his favours to them. This is
a wonder of mercy indeed, that she is thus <i>beloved of her
friend, though an adulteress;</i> such is the <i>love of the Lord
towards the children of Israel.</i> "Go," says God, "<i>love</i>
such a woman; see if thou canst find in thy heart to do it. No,
thou canst not, the breast of no man would admit such a love; yet
such is my <i>love to the children of Israel;</i> it is love to the
loveless, to the unlovely, to those that have a thousand times
forfeited it." Note, In God's goodwill to poor sinners his thoughts
and ways are infinitely above ours, and his love is more
condescending and compassionate than ours is, or can be; in this,
as much as any thing, he is <i>God, and not man,</i> <scripRef id="Hos.iv-p5.2" osisRef="Bible:Hos.11.9" parsed="|Hos|11|9|0|0" passage="Ho 11:9">Hos. xi. 9</scripRef>.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Hos.iv-p6" shownumber="no">2. The method found for the bringing of a
God so very good and a people so very bad together again; this is
the thing aimed at, and what God aims at he will accomplish. To our
great surprise, we find a breach thus wide as the sea effectually
healed; miracles cease not so long as divine mercy does not cease.
Observe here, (1.) The course God takes to humble them and make
them know themselves (<scripRef id="Hos.iv-p6.1" osisRef="Bible:Hos.3.2" parsed="|Hos|3|2|0|0" passage="Ho 3:2"><i>v.</i>
2</scripRef>): <i>I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver,
and a homer and a half of barley,</i> that is, I courted her to be
reconciled, to leave her ill courses, and return to her first
husband, as <scripRef id="Hos.iv-p6.2" osisRef="Bible:Hos.2.14" parsed="|Hos|2|14|0|0" passage="Ho 2:14"><i>ch.</i> ii.
14</scripRef>. I <i>allured</i> her, and <i>spoke comfortably</i>
to her; as the <i>Levite who went after</i> his concubine that had
<i>played the harlot</i> from him, and had run away with another
man, <i>spoke friendly to her,</i> <scripRef id="Hos.iv-p6.3" osisRef="Bible:Judg.19.3" parsed="|Judg|19|3|0|0" passage="Jdg 19:3">Judg. xix. 3</scripRef>. But here the present which the
prophet brought her for the purchasing of her favour is observed to
be a very small one; but it was all that was intended for her
separate maintenance, and in it she is reduced to a short
allowance, and, to punish her for her pride, is made to look very
mean. When Samson went to be reconciled to his wife that had
disobliged him he <i>visited her with a kid</i> (<scripRef id="Hos.iv-p6.4" osisRef="Bible:Judg.15.1" parsed="|Judg|15|1|0|0" passage="Jdg 15:1">Judg. xv. 1</scripRef>), which was a genteel
entertainment. But the prophet here visited his wife with
<i>fifteen pieces of silver,</i> a small sum, which yet she must be
content to live upon a great while, so long as till her husband
thought fit to restore her to her first estate. She shall also have
<i>a homer and a half of barley,</i> for bread-corn, and that is
all she must expect till she be sufficiently humbled, and, by a
competent time of trial, satisfactory proof given that she is
indeed reformed. Let her be made sensible that it is not for her
own merit that her husband makes court to her; it is but a lame
price that he values her at. The price of a servant was thirty
shekels, <scripRef id="Hos.iv-p6.5" osisRef="Bible:Exod.21.32" parsed="|Exod|21|32|0|0" passage="Ex 21:32">Exod. xxi. 32</scripRef>.
This was but half so much; yet let her know that it is more than
she is worth. God had given Egypt for Israel's ransom once, so
precious were they then in his sight, and so honourable, <scripRef id="Hos.iv-p6.6" osisRef="Bible:Isa.43.3" parsed="|Isa|43|3|0|0" passage="Isa 43:3">Isa. xliii. 3, 4</scripRef>. But now that they
have gone a whoring from him he will give but fifteen pieces of
silver for them, so much have they lost in their value by their
iniquity. Note, Those whom God designs honour and comfort for he
first makes sensible of their own worthlessness, and brings them to
acknowledge, with the prodigal, <i>I am no more worthy to be called
thy son.</i> Time was when Israel was <i>fed with the finest of the
wheat,</i> but they grew wanton, <i>and loved flagons of wine,</i>
and therefore, in order to the humbling and reducing of them, they
must be brought in the land of their captivity to eat barley-bread,
and be thankful they can get it, and to eat that too by weight and
measure, whereas they did not use to be stinted. Note, Poverty and
disgrace sometimes prove a happy means of making great sinners true
penitents. (2.) The new terms upon which God is willing to come
with them (<scripRef id="Hos.iv-p6.7" osisRef="Bible:Hos.3.3" parsed="|Hos|3|3|0|0" passage="Ho 3:3"><i>v.</i> 3</scripRef>):
<i>Thou shalt abide for me many days, and shalt not be for another,
so will I be for thee.</i> He might justly have given them a bill
of divorce, and have resolved to have no more to do with them; but
he is willing to show them kindness, and that the matter should be
compromised; he deals not with them in strict justice, according to
the rigour of the law, but according to the multitude of his
mercies; and it represents God's gracious dealings with the
apostate race of mankind, that had gone a whoring from him; he
bought them indeed with an inestimable price, not for their honour,
but for the honour of his own justice; and now this is the proposal
he makes to them, the covenant of grace he is willing to enter into
with them—they must be to him a people, and he will be to them a
God, the same with the proposal here made to Israel. [1.] They must
take to themselves the shame of their apostasy from him, must
submit to, and accept of, the punishment of their iniquity: <i>Thou
shalt abide for me many days</i> in <i>solitude</i> and
<i>silence,</i> as a widow that is <i>desolate</i> and in sorrow;
they must <i>lay aside their ornaments,</i> and wait with patience
and submission to know what God will do with them, and whether he
will please to admit such unworthy wretches into his favour again,
as they did <scripRef id="Hos.iv-p6.8" osisRef="Bible:Exod.33.4-Exod.33.5" parsed="|Exod|33|4|33|5" passage="Ex 33:4,5">Exod. xxxiii. 4,
5</scripRef>. <i>Their father,</i> their husband, has <i>spit in
their face</i> (as God said concerning Miriam), has put them under
the marks of his displeasure, and therefore, like her, they must be
<i>ashamed seven days,</i> and be <i>shut out of the camp</i>
(<scripRef id="Hos.iv-p6.9" osisRef="Bible:Num.12.14" parsed="|Num|12|14|0|0" passage="Nu 12:14">Num. xii. 14</scripRef>), till
<i>their uncircumcised hearts be humbled,</i> <scripRef id="Hos.iv-p6.10" osisRef="Bible:Lev.26.41" parsed="|Lev|26|41|0|0" passage="Le 26:41">Lev. xxvi. 41</scripRef>. Let them <i>sit alone</i> and
<i>keep silence, waiting for the salvation of the Lord,</i> and in
the mean time let them <i>bear the yoke,</i> <scripRef id="Hos.iv-p6.11" osisRef="Bible:Lam.3.26-Lam.3.28" parsed="|Lam|3|26|3|28" passage="La 3:26-28">Lam. iii. 26-28</scripRef>. Let them not expect that
God should speedily return in mercy to them,; no, let them want it,
let them wait for it <i>many days,</i> during all the days of their
captivity, and reckon it a miracle of mercy, and well worth waiting
for, it if come at last. Note, Those whom God designs mercy for he
will first bring to abase themselves and to put a high value upon
his favours. [2.] They must never return to folly again; that is
the condition upon which God will <i>speak peace to his people and
to his saints</i> (<scripRef id="Hos.iv-p6.12" osisRef="Bible:Ps.85.8" parsed="|Ps|85|8|0|0" passage="Ps 85:8">Ps. lxxxv.
8</scripRef>), and no other. "<i>Thou shalt not play the
harlot,</i> shalt not worship idols in the land of thy captivity,
while thou art there set apart for the uncleanness." Note, It is
not enough to take shame to ourselves for the sins we have
committed, and to justify God in correcting us for them, but we
must resolve, in the strength of God's grace, that we will not
offend any more, that we will not again go a whoring from God,
after the world and the flesh. Blessed be God, though it is the law
of the covenant, it is not the condition of it that we shall never
in any thing do amiss: "But thou shalt not <i>play the harlot;</i>
thou shalt not serve other gods, <i>shalt not be for another
man.</i>" In the land of their captivity they would be courted to
worship the idols of the country; that would be a trial for them, a
<i>long</i> trial, many days: "But if thou keep thy ground, and
hold fast thy integrity, if, when <i>all this comes upon thee,</i>
thou dost not <i>stretch out thy hand to a strange god,</i> thou
wilt be qualified for the returns of God's favour." Note, It is a
certain sign that our afflictions are means of much good to us, and
earnests of more, when we are kept by the grace of God from being
overcome by the temptations of an afflicted state. [3.] Upon these
terms their Maker will again be their husband: <i>So will I also be
for thee.</i> This is the covenant between God and returning
sinners, that, if they will be for him to serve him, he will be for
them to save them. Let them renounce and abjure all rivals with God
for the throne in the heart, and devote themselves entirely to him
and him only, and he will be to them a God all-sufficient. If we be
faithful and constant to God in a way of duty, and will never leave
nor forsake him, he will be so to us in a way of mercy, and will
never leave nor forsake us. And a fairer proposal could not be
made.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Hos.iv-p7" shownumber="no">II. In the <scripRef id="Hos.iv-p7.1" osisRef="Bible:Hos.3.4-Hos.3.5" parsed="|Hos|3|4|3|5" passage="Ho 3:4,5">last two verses</scripRef> we have the interpretation of
the parable and the application of it to Israel.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Hos.iv-p8" shownumber="no">1. They must long <i>sit like a widow,</i>
stripped of all their joys and honours, <scripRef id="Hos.iv-p8.1" osisRef="Bible:Lam.4.1-Lam.4.2" parsed="|Lam|4|1|4|2" passage="La 4:1,2">Lam. iv. 1, 2</scripRef>. <i>They shall abide many days
without a king, and without a prince;</i> and a nation in this
condition may well be called <i>a widow.</i> They want the
blessing, (1.) Of civil government: They shall abide <i>without a
king,</i> and <i>without a prince,</i> of their own. There were
kings and princes over them to oppress them and rule them with
rigour, but they had no king nor prince to protect them, to fight
their battles for them, to administer justice to them, and to take
care of their common safety and welfare. Note, Magistracy is a very
great blessing to a people, and it is a sad and sore judgment to
want it. (2.) Of public worship: <i>They shall</i> abide <i>without
a sacrifice,</i> and <i>without an image</i> (or a <i>statue,</i>
or <i>pillar;</i> the word is used concerning the pillars Jacob
erected, <scripRef id="Hos.iv-p8.2" osisRef="Bible:Gen.28.18 Bible:Gen.31.45 Bible:Gen.35.20" parsed="|Gen|28|18|0|0;|Gen|31|45|0|0;|Gen|35|20|0|0" passage="Ge 28:18,31:45,35:20">Gen. xxviii. 18;
xxxi. 45; xxxv. 20</scripRef>), and <i>without an ephod and
teraphim.</i> The <i>teraphim</i> being here closely joined to the
<i>ephod,</i> some thing the <i>urim</i> and <i>thummim</i> were
meant by it in the breast-plate of the high priest. The meaning is
that in their captivity they should not only have no face of a
nation upon them, but no face of a church; they should not have (as
a learned expositor speaks) liberty of any public profession or
exercise of religion, either true or false, according to their
choice. They shall have <i>no sacrifice or altar</i> (so the LXX.),
and therefore no sacrifice because no altar. They shall have <i>no
ephod,</i> nor <i>teraphim,</i> no legal priesthood, no means of
knowing God's mind, no oracle to consult in doubtful cases, but
shall be all in the dark. Note, The case of those is very
melancholy that are deprived of all opportunities to worship God in
public. This was the case of the Jews in their captivity; and it is
so far the case of the scattered Jews at this day that, though they
have their synagogues, they have no temple-service. Desolate indeed
is their condition that are shut out from communion with God, that
have no opportunity of directing their addresses to God by
sacrifice and altar, and of receiving instruction from him by ephod
and teraphim.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Hos.iv-p9" shownumber="no">2. They shall at length be received again
as a wife (<scripRef id="Hos.iv-p9.1" osisRef="Bible:Hos.3.5" parsed="|Hos|3|5|0|0" passage="Ho 3:5"><i>v.</i> 5</scripRef>):
<i>Afterwards,</i> in process of time, when they have gone through
this discipline, <i>they shall return,</i> that is, they shall
repent of their idolatries and forsake them, they shall apply
themselves to God and adhere to him, and herein they shall be
accepted of him. Two things are here promised as instances of their
return, and steps towards their acceptance with God in their
return:—(1.) The enquiries they shall make after God: <i>They
shall seek the Lord their God, and David their king.</i> Note,
Those that would find God, and find favour with him, must seek him,
must ask after him, covet acquaintance with him, desire to be
reconciled to him, set their love on him, and labour in this that
they may be accepted of him. Their seeking him implies that they
had lost him, that they were lamenting their loss, and that they
were solicitous to retrieve what they had lost. They shall seek him
as <i>their God;</i> for <i>should not a people seek unto their
God?</i> And they shall seek <i>David their King,</i> who can be no
other than the Messiah, our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of David,
the <i>root and offspring of David,</i> whom David himself called
<i>Lord</i> (<scripRef id="Hos.iv-p9.2" osisRef="Bible:Ps.110.1" parsed="|Ps|110|1|0|0" passage="Ps 110:1">Ps. cx. 1</scripRef>),
and to whom God gave the <i>throne of his father David,</i>
<scripRef id="Hos.iv-p9.3" osisRef="Bible:Luke.1.32" parsed="|Luke|1|32|0|0" passage="Lu 1:32">Luke i. 32</scripRef>. The Chaldee
reads it, They shall <i>seek the service of the Lord their God,</i>
and <i>shall obey Messiah, the Son of David their king.</i> Compare
this with <scripRef id="Hos.iv-p9.4" osisRef="Bible:Jer.30.9 Bible:Ezek.34.23 Bible:Ezek.37.25" parsed="|Jer|30|9|0|0;|Ezek|34|23|0|0;|Ezek|37|25|0|0" passage="Jer 30:9,Eze 34:23,37:25">Jer. xxx. 9;
Ezek. xxxiv. 23; xxxvii. 25</scripRef>. Note, Those that would seek
the Lord so as to find him must apply to Jesus Christ, and must
seek to him as their King, and become his willing people, and take
an oath of fealty and allegiance to him. (2.) The reverence they
shall have of God: <i>They shall fear the Lord and his
goodness.</i> Some by his <i>goodness</i> here understand the
temple, towards which they shall look, in worshipping God. The Jews
say, There were three things which Israel cast off in the days of
Rehoboam—the <i>kingdom of heaven,</i> the <i>family of David,</i>
and the <i>house of the sanctuary;</i> and it will never be well
with them till they return, and seek them all three, which is here
promised. They shall seek the kingdom of heaven in <i>the Lord
their God,</i> the royal family in <i>David their King,</i> and the
temple in <i>the goodness of the Lord.</i> Others by <i>his
goodness</i> understand Christ, the same <i>with David their
King.</i> But it is rather to be taken for that attribute of God
which he showed as his glory, and by which he proclaimed his name.
Note, It is not only the Lord and his greatness that we are to
fear, but the Lord and his goodness, not only his majesty, but his
mercy. They shall <i>flee for fear to the Lord and his goodness</i>
(so some take it), shall flee to it as their city of refuge. We
must <i>fear God's goodness,</i> that is, we must admire it, and
stand amazed at it, must adore it, and <i>worship</i> as Moses did
at the proclaiming of this name, <scripRef id="Hos.iv-p9.5" osisRef="Bible:Exod.34.6" parsed="|Exod|34|6|0|0" passage="Ex 34:6">Exod.
xxxiv. 6</scripRef>. We must be afraid of offending his goodness,
of making any ungrateful returns for it, and so forfeiting it.
<i>There is forgiveness with God, that he may be feared,</i>
<scripRef id="Hos.iv-p9.6" osisRef="Bible:Ps.130.4" parsed="|Ps|130|4|0|0" passage="Ps 130:4">Ps. cxxx. 4</scripRef>. We must
<i>rejoice with trembling</i> in the goodness of God, must not be
<i>high-minded, but fear.</i> Now this promise had its
accomplishment when by the gospel of Christ great multitudes both
of Jews and Gentiles were brought home to God, and incorporated in
the New-Testament church, served God in Christ, with a filial fear
of divine grace, and were accepted of God as his Israel. And some
think it is to be yet further accomplished in the conversion of
those Jews to the faith of Christ who shall remain in unbelief,
when they shall seek their Messiah as <i>David their King,</i> and
by him <i>all Israel shall be saved,</i> when the <i>fulness of the
Gentiles is brought in.</i> Time was when they sought him to put
him to death, saying, <i>We have no king but Cæsar;</i> but the day
is coming when they shall seek him to <i>appoint him their
head,</i> and to lay their necks under his yoke. He that has here
promised that they shall do it will enable them to do it, and bring
about this great work in his own way and time, <i>in the latter
days</i> of the <i>last times,</i> the times of the Messiah: but,
alas! who shall live when God does this? How far we are to expect a
general conversion of that nation I cannot say; but I am sure we
ought to pray that the Jews may be converted.</p>
</div></div2>