mh_parser/vol_split/28 - Hosea/Chapter 2.xml

<div2 id="Hos.iii" n="iii" next="Hos.iv" prev="Hos.ii" progress="74.58%" title="Chapter II">
<h2 id="Hos.iii-p0.1">H O S E A.</h2>
<h3 id="Hos.iii-p0.2">CHAP. II.</h3>
<p class="intro" id="Hos.iii-p1" shownumber="no">The scope of this chapter seems to be much the
same with that of the foregoing chapter, and to point at the same
events, and the causes of them. As there, so here, I. God, by the
prophet, discovers sin to them, and charges it home upon them, the
sin of their idolatry, their spiritual whoredom, their serving
idols and forgetting God and their obligations to him, <scripRef id="Hos.iii-p1.1" osisRef="Bible:Hos.2.1-Hos.2.2 Bible:Hos.2.5 Bible:Hos.2.8" parsed="|Hos|2|1|2|2;|Hos|2|5|0|0;|Hos|2|8|0|0" passage="Ho 2:1,2,5,8">ver. 1, 2, 5, 8</scripRef>. II. He threatens
to take away from them that plenty of all good things with which
they had served their idols, and to abandon them to ruin without
remedy, <scripRef id="Hos.iii-p1.2" osisRef="Bible:Hos.2.3-Hos.2.4 Bible:Hos.2.6 Bible:Hos.2.7 Bible:Hos.2.9-Hos.2.13" parsed="|Hos|2|3|2|4;|Hos|2|6|0|0;|Hos|2|7|0|0;|Hos|2|9|2|13" passage="Ho 2:3,4,6,7,9-13">ver. 3, 4, 6, 7,
9-13</scripRef>. III. Yet he promises at last to return in ways of
mercy to them for his own sake (<scripRef id="Hos.iii-p1.3" osisRef="Bible:Hos.2.14" parsed="|Hos|2|14|0|0" passage="Ho 2:14">ver.
14</scripRef>), to restore them to their former plenty (<scripRef id="Hos.iii-p1.4" osisRef="Bible:Hos.2.15" parsed="|Hos|2|15|0|0" passage="Ho 2:15">ver. 15</scripRef>), to cure them of their
inclination to idolatry (<scripRef id="Hos.iii-p1.5" osisRef="Bible:Hos.2.16-Hos.2.17" parsed="|Hos|2|16|2|17" passage="Ho 2:16,17">ver. 16,
17</scripRef>), to renew his covenant with them (<scripRef id="Hos.iii-p1.6" osisRef="Bible:Hos.2.18-Hos.2.20" parsed="|Hos|2|18|2|20" passage="Ho 2:18-20">ver. 18-20</scripRef>), and to bless them with all
good things, <scripRef id="Hos.iii-p1.7" osisRef="Bible:Hos.2.21-Hos.2.23" parsed="|Hos|2|21|2|23" passage="Ho 2:21-23">ver.
21-23</scripRef>.</p>
<scripCom id="Hos.iii-p1.8" osisRef="Bible:Hos.2" parsed="|Hos|2|0|0|0" passage="Ho 2" type="Commentary"/>
<scripCom id="Hos.iii-p1.9" osisRef="Bible:Hos.2.1-Hos.2.5" parsed="|Hos|2|1|2|5" passage="Ho 2:1-5" type="Commentary"/><div class="Commentary" id="Hos.iii-p1.10">
<h4 id="Hos.iii-p1.11">The Sinfulness of Israel. (<span class="smallcaps" id="Hos.iii-p1.12">b. c.</span> 764.)</h4>
<p class="passage" id="Hos.iii-p2" shownumber="no">1 Say ye unto your brethren, Ammi; and to your
sisters, Ruhamah.   2 Plead with your mother, plead: for she
<i>is</i> not my wife, neither <i>am</i> I her husband: let her
therefore put away her whoredoms out of her sight, and her
adulteries from between her breasts;   3 Lest I strip her
naked, and set her as in the day that she was born, and make her as
a wilderness, and set her like a dry land, and slay her with
thirst.   4 And I will not have mercy upon her children; for
they <i>be</i> the children of whoredoms.   5 For their mother
hath played the harlot: she that conceived them hath done
shamefully: for she said, I will go after my lovers, that give
<i>me</i> my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, mine oil and
my drink.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Hos.iii-p3" shownumber="no">The first words of this chapter some make
the close of the foregoing chapter, and add them to the promises
which we have here of the great things God would do for them. When
they shall have appointed Christ their head, and centered in him,
then let them say to one another, with triumph and exultation
(<i>let the prophets say it</i> to them, so the Chaldee—<i>Comfort
you, comfort you, my people,</i> is now their commission), "say to
them, <i>Ammi,</i> and <i>Ruhamah;</i> call them so again, for they
shall no longer lie under the reproach and doom of <i>Lo-ammi</i>
and <i>Lo-ruhamah;</i> they shall now be <i>my people</i> again,
and shall <i>obtain mercy.</i>" God's spiritual Israel, made up of
Jews and Gentiles without distinction, shall call one another
brethren and sisters, shall own one another for the people of God
and beloved of him, and, for that reason, shall embrace one
another, and stir up one another both to give thanks for and to
walk worthy of this <i>common salvation</i> which they partake of.
Or rather, because the following words seem to have a coherence
with these, these also are designed for conviction and humiliation.
The <i>mother</i> (<scripRef id="Hos.iii-p3.1" osisRef="Bible:Hos.2.2" parsed="|Hos|2|2|0|0" passage="Ho 2:2"><i>v.</i>
2</scripRef>) seems to be the same with the <i>brethren</i> and
<i>sisters</i> (<scripRef id="Hos.iii-p3.2" osisRef="Bible:Hos.2.1" parsed="|Hos|2|1|0|0" passage="Ho 2:1"><i>v.</i> 1</scripRef>),
the church of the ten tribes, the body of the people, who were
brethren, and in a special manner with the heads and leaders, who
were as the mother by whom the rest were brought up and nursed. But
who are the children that must <i>plead with their mother</i> thus?
Either, 1. The godly that were among them, that witnessed against
the iniquities of the times, let them boldly go on to bear their
testimony against the idolatries and gross corruptions that prevail
among them. Let those that had not bowed the knee to Baal reason
the case with those that had, and endeavour to convince them with
such arguments as are here put into their mouths. Note, Private
persons may, and ought in their places, to appear and plead against
the public profanations of God's name and worship. Children may
humbly and modestly argue with their parents when they do amiss:
<i>Plead with your mother, plead,</i> as Jonathan with Saul
concerning David. Or, 2. The sufferers among them, that shared in
the calamities of the times, let them not complain of God, let them
not quarrel with him, nor lay the blame on him, as if he had dealt
hardly with them, and not like a tender father. No; let them
<i>plead with their mother,</i> and lay the fault on her, where it
ought to be laid; compare <scripRef id="Hos.iii-p3.3" osisRef="Bible:Isa.50.1" parsed="|Isa|50|1|0|0" passage="Isa 50:1">Isa. l.
1</scripRef>. "<i>For her transgressions is your mother put
away;</i> she may thank herself, and you may thank her for all your
miseries." Let us see now how they must plead with her.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Hos.iii-p4" shownumber="no">I. They must put here in mind of the
relation wherein she had stood to God, the kindness he had had for
her, the many favours he had bestowed upon her, and the further
favours he had designed her. Let them tell their <i>brethren</i>
and <i>sisters</i> that they had been <i>Ammi</i> and
<i>Ruhamah,</i> that they had been God's people and vessels of his
mercy, and might have been so still if it had not been their own
fault, <scripRef id="Hos.iii-p4.1" osisRef="Bible:Hos.2.1" parsed="|Hos|2|1|0|0" passage="Ho 2:1"><i>v.</i> 1</scripRef>. Note, Our
relation to God and dependence on him are a great aggravation of
our revolts from him and rebellions against him.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Hos.iii-p5" shownumber="no">II. They must, in God's name, charge her
with the violation of the marriage-covenant between her and God.
Let them tell her that God does not look upon her as his wife, nor
upon himself as her husband any longer. Tell her (<scripRef id="Hos.iii-p5.1" osisRef="Bible:Hos.2.2" parsed="|Hos|2|2|0|0" passage="Ho 2:2"><i>v.</i> 2</scripRef>) that <i>she is not my
wife, neither am I her husband,</i> that by her spiritual whoredom
she has forfeited all the honour and comfort of her relation to
God, and provoked him to give her a bill of divorce. Note, No
consideration can be more powerful to awaken us to repentance than
the provocation we have by sin given to God to disown and cast us
off. It is time to look about us, and to think what course we must
take, when God threatens to reject us; for woe unto us if he be not
<i>our husband.</i> They must charge this home upon her (<scripRef id="Hos.iii-p5.2" osisRef="Bible:Hos.2.5" parsed="|Hos|2|5|0|0" passage="Ho 2:5"><i>v.</i> 5</scripRef>): <i>Their mother has
played the harlot; their congregation has run a whoring after false
prophets</i> (so the Chaldee), or, rather, <i>after idols,</i>
wherein they were encouraged by their false prophets; <i>she that
conceived them has done shamefully,</i> in making and worshipping
idols. An idol is called a <i>shame</i> (<scripRef id="Hos.iii-p5.3" osisRef="Bible:Hos.9.10" parsed="|Hos|9|10|0|0" passage="Ho 9:10"><i>ch.</i> ix. 10</scripRef>) and idolatry is a
<i>shameful thing.</i> It is not only an affront to God, but a
reproach to men, to <i>fall down to the stock of a tree,</i> as the
prophet speaks. Or it denotes that the sinner was shameless,
impudent in sin, and could not blush; <scripRef id="Hos.iii-p5.4" osisRef="Bible:Jer.6.15" parsed="|Jer|6|15|0|0" passage="Jer 6:15">Jer. vi. 15</scripRef>. Or, <i>She has made ashamed,</i>
has made all that see her ashamed of her; her own children are
ashamed of their relation to her.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Hos.iii-p6" shownumber="no">III. They must upbraid her with her horrid
ingratitude to God her benefactor, in ascribing to her idols the
glory of the gifts he had given her, and then giving that for a
reason why she paid them the homage due to him only, <scripRef id="Hos.iii-p6.1" osisRef="Bible:Hos.2.5" parsed="|Hos|2|5|0|0" passage="Ho 2:5"><i>v.</i> 5</scripRef>. In this she <i>did
shamefully</i> indeed, that <i>she said, I will go after my lovers
that give me my bread and my water.</i> Observe here, 1. Her wicked
resolution to persist in idolatry, notwithstanding all that God
said, both by his prophets and by his providences, to draw her from
it. <i>She said,</i> Whatever is offered to the contrary, <i>I will
go after my lovers,</i> or <i>those that cause me to love them,</i>
whom I cannot but be in love with. The Chaldee understands it of
the nations whose alliance Israel courted and depended upon, who
supplied them with what they needed. But it is rather to be
understood of the idols they worshipped, to justify their love of
which they called them their lovers. See who do shamefully; those
that are wilful and resolute in sin, and those that openly profess
and own their resolution to go on in it. See the folly of
idolaters, to call those their lovers that had not so much as life;
yet let us learn to call our God our lover; let us keep up good
thoughts of him, and put a high value upon our interest in him and
in his love. 2. The gross mistake upon which this resolution was
grounded: "I will go after my lovers, because they give me my
<i>bread and my water,</i> which are necessary to sustain the body,
<i>my wool and my flax,</i> which are necessary to clothe the body,
and pleasant things, <i>my oil,</i> and <i>my drink,</i> my
liquors" (so the word is), "wine and strong drink." Note, (1.) The
things of sense are the best things with carnal hearts, and the
most powerful attractives, in pursuit of which they care not what
they follow after. The God of Israel set before them his
<i>statutes</i> and <i>judgments</i> (<scripRef id="Hos.iii-p6.2" osisRef="Bible:Deut.4.8" parsed="|Deut|4|8|0|0" passage="De 4:8">Deut. iv. 8</scripRef>), <i>more to be desired than gold,
and sweeter than honey</i> (<scripRef id="Hos.iii-p6.3" osisRef="Bible:Ps.119.10" parsed="|Ps|119|10|0|0" passage="Ps 119:10">Ps. cxix.
10</scripRef>), promised them his favour, which would <i>put
gladness in their hearts more than corn, wine, and oil</i>
(<scripRef id="Hos.iii-p6.4" osisRef="Bible:Ps.4.7" parsed="|Ps|4|7|0|0" passage="Ps 4:7">Ps. iv. 7</scripRef>); but they had no
relish at all for these things. Whence they thought their oil and
their drink came, thither they would return their best affections.
<i>O curvæ in terram animæ et cœlestium inanes!</i>—<i>O
degenerate minds, bending towards the earth, and devoid of every
thing heavenly!</i> (2.) It is a great abuse and injury to God, in
pursuance of the pleasures and delights of sense to forsake him,
who not only gives us better things, but gives us even those things
too. The idolaters made Ceres the goddess of their corn, Bacchus
the god of their wine, &amp;c., and then foolishly fancied they had
their corn and wine from these, forgetting the Lord their God, who
both gave them that good land and <i>gave them power to get
wealth</i> out of it. (3.) Many are hardened in sin by their
worldly prosperity. They had an abundance of those things when they
served their idols, and then imagined them to be given them by
their idols, which kept them to their service; thus they argued
(<scripRef id="Hos.iii-p6.5" osisRef="Bible:Jer.44.17-Jer.44.18" parsed="|Jer|44|17|44|18" passage="Jer 44:17,18">Jer. xliv. 17, 18</scripRef>),
<i>While we burnt incense to the queen of heaven we had plenty of
victuals.</i></p>
<p class="indent" id="Hos.iii-p7" shownumber="no">IV. They must persuade her to repent and
reform. God will disown her if she persist in her whoredoms; <i>let
her therefore put away her whoredoms,</i> <scripRef id="Hos.iii-p7.1" osisRef="Bible:Hos.2.2" parsed="|Hos|2|2|0|0" passage="Ho 2:2"><i>v.</i> 2</scripRef>. Let her be convinced that it is
possible for her to reform; the idols, dear as they are, may yet be
parted with; and it will certainly be well with her if she do
reform. Note, Our pleading with sinners must be to drive them to
repentance, not to drive them to despair. Let her <i>put away her
whoredoms and her adulteries;</i> the doubling of words to the same
purport, and both plural, denotes the abundance of idolatries they
were guilty of, all which must be abandoned ere God would be
reconciled to them. Let her put them <i>out of her sight,</i> as
detestable things which she cannot endure to look upon; let her say
unto them, <i>Get you hence,</i> <scripRef id="Hos.iii-p7.2" osisRef="Bible:Isa.30.22" parsed="|Isa|30|22|0|0" passage="Isa 30:22">Isa.
xxx. 22</scripRef>. Let her put them <i>from her face</i> and from
<i>between her breasts,</i> that is, let her not do as harlots use
to do, that both discover their own wicked disposition, and allure
others to wickedness, by painting their faces, and exposing their
naked breasts, and adorning them; let her not thus, by annexing all
possible gaieties and pleasures to the worship of idols, engage
herself and allure others to it. Let her put away all these. Every
sinful course, persisted in, is an adulterous departure from God.
And here we may see what it is truly to repent of it and turn from
it. 1. True penitents will forsake both open sins, will put away
not only the whoredoms that lie in sight, but those that lie in
secret <i>between their breasts,</i> the sin that is <i>rolled
under the tongue as a sweet morsel.</i> 2. They will both avoid the
outward occasions of sin and mortify the inward disposition to it.
Idolaters walked after their own eyes, which <i>went a whoring</i>
after their idols (<scripRef id="Hos.iii-p7.3" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.6.9 Bible:Deut.4.19" parsed="|Ezek|6|9|0|0;|Deut|4|19|0|0" passage="Eze 6:9,De 4:19">Ezek. vi. 9,
Deut. iv. 19</scripRef>), and <i>therefore</i> they must put them
away <i>out of their sight,</i> lest they should be tempted to
worship them. <i>Look not upon the wine when it is red.</i> But
that is not enough: the axe must be <i>laid to the root;</i> the
corrupt bent and inclination of the heart must be changed, and it
must be put away <i>from between the breasts,</i> that Christ alone
may have the innermost and uppermost place there. <scripRef id="Hos.iii-p7.4" osisRef="Bible:Song.1.13" parsed="|Song|1|13|0|0" passage="So 1:13">Cant. i. 13</scripRef>.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Hos.iii-p8" shownumber="no">V. They must show her the utter ruin that
will certainly be the fatal consequence of her sin if she do not
repent and reform (<scripRef id="Hos.iii-p8.1" osisRef="Bible:Hos.2.3" parsed="|Hos|2|3|0|0" passage="Ho 2:3"><i>v.</i>
3</scripRef>): <i>Lest I strip her naked.</i> This comes in here
not by way of sentence passed upon her, but by way of warning given
to her, that she may prevent it: <i>Let her put away her whoredoms,
that I may not strip her naked</i> (so it may be read), intimating
that God waits to show mercy to sinners, if they would but qualify
themselves for that mercy. It is here threatened that God will deal
with her as the just and jealous husband at length does with an
adulterous wife, that has filled his house with a spurious brood,
and will not be reclaimed; he turns her and her children out of
doors and sends them a begging; <i>I will not have mercy upon her
children</i> (<scripRef id="Hos.iii-p8.2" osisRef="Bible:Hos.2.4" parsed="|Hos|2|4|0|0" passage="Ho 2:4"><i>v.</i> 4</scripRef>);
the particular persons that share in the calamity of the nation,
and the rising generation, shall be ruined by it, for they are
<i>children of whoredoms,</i> and keep up the <i>vain conversation
received by tradition from their fathers.</i> Now it is here
threatened that they shall be both stripped and starved. They
thought their idols gave them <i>their bread and their water, their
wool and their flax;</i> but God, by taking them away, will let
them know that it was he that gave them. 1. She shall be stripped:
<i>Lest I strip her</i> of all her ornaments which she is proud of,
and with which she courts her lovers, <i>strip her</i> and set her
<i>as in the day that she was born,</i> send her as naked out of
the world as she came into it; this death does, <scripRef id="Hos.iii-p8.3" osisRef="Bible:Job.1.21" parsed="|Job|1|21|0|0" passage="Job 1:21">Job i. 21</scripRef>. <i>I will strip her,</i> and so
expose her to cold, and expose her to shame; and justly is she
exposed to shame that <i>did shamefully,</i> <scripRef id="Hos.iii-p8.4" osisRef="Bible:Hos.2.5" parsed="|Hos|2|5|0|0" passage="Ho 2:5"><i>v.</i> 5</scripRef>. The day when God brought them out
of Egypt, where they were no better than slaves and beggars, was
<i>the day in which they were born;</i> and God threatens to bring
them back to as low and miserable a condition as he then found them
in. Whatever they had that either gained them respect or screened
them from contempt, among their neighbours, should be taken from
them. See <scripRef id="Hos.iii-p8.5" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.16.4 Bible:Ezek.16.39" parsed="|Ezek|16|4|0|0;|Ezek|16|39|0|0" passage="Eze 16:4,39">Ezek. xvi. 4,
39</scripRef>. 2. She shall be starved, shall be deprived not only
of her honours, but of her comforts and necessary supports. She
shall be famished, shall be made <i>as a wilderness</i> and <i>a
dry land,</i> and <i>slain with thirst.</i> She that boasted so
much of her bread and water, her oil and her drinks, which her
lovers had <i>given her,</i> shall not have so much as necessary
food. The land shall not afford subsistence for the inhabitants,
for want of the rain of heaven; or, if it do, it shall be taken
from them by the enemy, so that the rightful owners shall perish
for want of it. Some understand it thus: <i>I will make her as</i>
she was in the <i>wilderness,</i> and set her as she was <i>in the
desert land,</i> where she was sometimes ready to perish <i>for
thirst.</i> So it explains the former part of the <scripRef id="Hos.iii-p8.6" osisRef="Bible:Hos.2.3" parsed="|Hos|2|3|0|0" passage="Ho 2:3">verse</scripRef>: I will set her <i>as in the day
that she was born;</i> for it was in the vast howling wilderness
that Israel was first formed into a people. They shall be in as
deplorable a condition as their fathers were, whose carcases fell
in the wilderness, and in this respect, worse, that then the
children were reserved to be heirs of the land of promise, but now
<i>I will not have mercy upon her children,</i> for <i>their mother
has played the harlot.</i></p>
</div><scripCom id="Hos.iii-p8.7" osisRef="Bible:Hos.2.6-Hos.2.13" parsed="|Hos|2|6|2|13" passage="Ho 2:6-13" type="Commentary"/><div class="Commentary" id="Hos.iii-p8.8">
<h4 id="Hos.iii-p8.9">Threatenings of Judgment. (<span class="smallcaps" id="Hos.iii-p8.10">b. c.</span> 764.)</h4>
<p class="passage" id="Hos.iii-p9" shownumber="no">6 Therefore, behold, I will hedge up thy way
with thorns, and make a wall, that she shall not find her paths.
  7 And she shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not
overtake them; and she shall seek them, but shall not find
<i>them:</i> then shall she say, I will go and return to my first
husband; for then <i>was it</i> better with me than now.   8
For she did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and
multiplied her silver and gold, <i>which</i> they prepared for
Baal.   9 Therefore will I return, and take away my corn in
the time thereof, and my wine in the season thereof, and will
recover my wool and my flax <i>given</i> to cover her nakedness.
  10 And now will I discover her lewdness in the sight of her
lovers, and none shall deliver her out of mine hand.   11 I
will also cause all her mirth to cease, her feast days, her new
moons, and her sabbaths, and all her solemn feasts.   12 And I
will destroy her vines and her fig trees, whereof she hath said,
These <i>are</i> my rewards that my lovers have given me: and I
will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field shall eat
them.   13 And I will visit upon her the days of Baalim,
wherein she burned incense to them, and she decked herself with her
earrings and her jewels, and she went after her lovers, and forgat
me, saith the <span class="smallcaps" id="Hos.iii-p9.1">Lord</span>.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Hos.iii-p10" shownumber="no">God here goes on to threaten what he would
do with this treacherous idolatrous people; and he warns that he
may not wound, he threatens that he may not strike. <i>If he turn
not, he will whet his sword</i> (<scripRef id="Hos.iii-p10.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.7.12" parsed="|Ps|7|12|0|0" passage="Ps 7:12">Ps.
vii. 12</scripRef>); but, if he turn, he will sheathe it. They did
not turn, and therefore all this came upon them: and its being
threatened before shows that it was the execution of a divine
sentence upon them for their wickedness; and it is written for
admonition to us.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Hos.iii-p11" shownumber="no">I. They shall be perplexed and embarrassed
in all their counsels, and disappointed in all their expectations.
This is threatened <scripRef id="Hos.iii-p11.1" osisRef="Bible:Hos.2.6-Hos.2.7" parsed="|Hos|2|6|2|7" passage="Ho 2:6,7"><i>v.</i> 6,
7</scripRef>. But to the threatening is annexed a promise that this
shall be a means to convince them of their folly, and bring them
home to their duty; and so good shall be brought out of evil, in
token of the mercy God has yet in reserve for them. And, this being
the happy fruit and effect of the distress, it is hard to say
whether the prediction, or the distress itself, should be called a
threatening or a promise.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Hos.iii-p12" shownumber="no">1. God will raise up difficulties and
troubles in their way, so that their public counsels and affairs
shall have no success, nor shall they be able to get forward in
them: <i>I will hedge up thy way with thorns,</i> with such crosses
as, like thorns and briers, are the product of sin and the curse,
and are scratching, and tearing, and vexing, and, when the way we
are in is hedged up with them, stop our progress, and force us to
turn back. She said, "<i>I will go after my lovers;</i> I will
pursue my leagues and alliances with foreign powers, and depend
upon them." But God says, "She shall be frustrated in these
projects, and not be able to proceed in them. <i>I will hedge up
thy way with thorns,</i> and, if that do not serve, <i>I will make
a wall.</i>" If some smaller difficulties be got over, and prevail
not to break her measures, God will raise greater, for he will
overcome when he judges. It shall be such a hedge, and such a wall,
that <i>she shall not find her paths.</i> The change of the person
here, I will hedge up <i>thy way,</i> and then, <i>She</i> shall
not find <i>it,</i> is usual in scripture, especially in an earnest
way of speaking. "Sinner, do thou take notice, <i>I will hedge up
thy way,</i> and all you that are bystanders take notice what will
be the effect of this, you may observe that <i>she</i> cannot find
her paths." She shall be as a traveller that not only knows not
which way to go, of many that are before him, but that finds no way
at all to go forward. And then <i>she shall follow after her
lovers, but she shall not overtake them;</i> she shall endeavour to
make an interest in the Assyrians and Egyptians, and to have them
for her protectors, but she shall not gain her point; they shall
either not come into confederacy with her or not do her any
service, shall <i>help in vain</i> and be as the <i>staff of a
broken reed. She shall seek them, but shall not find them,</i>
shall seek to her idols, but shall not find that satisfaction in
them which she promised herself; the gods whom she trusted and
courted not only can do nothing for her, but have nothing to say to
her to encourage her. Now, (1.) This is such a just judgment as the
Sodomites met with, that were <i>struck with blindness,</i> and
<i>wearied themselves to find the door</i> (<scripRef id="Hos.iii-p12.1" osisRef="Bible:Gen.19.11" parsed="|Gen|19|11|0|0" passage="Ge 19:11">Gen. xix. 11</scripRef>), and the Syrians, <scripRef id="Hos.iii-p12.2" osisRef="Bible:2Kgs.6.18" parsed="|2Kgs|6|18|0|0" passage="2Ki 6:18">2 Kings vi. 18</scripRef>. Note, Those that are
most resolute in their sinful pursuits are commonly most crossed in
them. <i>Thorns and snares are in the way of the froward</i>
(<scripRef id="Hos.iii-p12.3" osisRef="Bible:Prov.22.5" parsed="|Prov|22|5|0|0" passage="Pr 22:5">Prov. xxii. 5</scripRef>); and thus
with them God <i>shows himself froward</i> (<scripRef id="Hos.iii-p12.4" osisRef="Bible:Ps.18.26" parsed="|Ps|18|26|0|0" passage="Ps 18:26">Ps. xviii. 26</scripRef>), and <i>walks contrary to
those that walk contrary to him,</i> <scripRef id="Hos.iii-p12.5" osisRef="Bible:Lev.26.23-Lev.26.24" parsed="|Lev|26|23|26|24" passage="Le 26:23,24">Lev. xxvi. 23, 24</scripRef>. The lamenting prophet
complains, <i>He has enclosed my ways,</i> <scripRef id="Hos.iii-p12.6" osisRef="Bible:Lam.3.7 Bible:Lam.3.9" parsed="|Lam|3|7|0|0;|Lam|3|9|0|0" passage="La 3:7,9">Lam. iii. 7, 9</scripRef>. The way of God and duty is
often hedged about with thorns, but we have reason to think it is a
sinful way that is hedged up with thorns. (2.) This is such a kind
rebuke, and indeed such a mercy, as Balaam met with, when the angel
stood in his way, to hinder his going forward to <i>curse
Israel,</i> <scripRef id="Hos.iii-p12.7" osisRef="Bible:Num.22.22" parsed="|Num|22|22|0|0" passage="Nu 22:22">Num. xxii. 22</scripRef>.
Note, Crosses and obstacles in an evil course are great blessings,
and are so to be accounted. They are God's hedges, to keep us from
transgressing, to restrain us from wandering out of the green
pastures, to <i>withdraw man from his purpose</i> (<scripRef id="Hos.iii-p12.8" osisRef="Bible:Job.33.17" parsed="|Job|33|17|0|0" passage="Job 33:17">Job xxxiii. 17</scripRef>), to make the way of
sin difficult, that we may not go on in it, and to keep us from it
whether we will or not. We have reason to bless God both for
restraining grace and for restraining providences.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Hos.iii-p13" shownumber="no">2. These difficulties that God raises up in
their way shall raise up in their minds thoughts of turning back:
"<i>Then shall she say,</i> Since I cannot overtake my lovers, I
will even <i>go and return to my first husband,</i> that is, will
return to God, and humble myself to him, and desire him to take me
in again; for, when I kept close to him, it was every way <i>better
with me than now.</i>" Two things are here extorted from this
degenerate apostate people:—(1.) A just acknowledgement of the
folly of their apostasy. They are now brought to own that it was
better with them while they kept close to their God than ever it
was since they forsook him. Note, Whoever have exchanged the
service of God for the services of the world and the flesh have,
sooner or later, been made to own that they <i>changed for the
worse,</i> and that while they continued in good company, and went
on in the way of good duties, and made conscience how they spent
their time and what they said or did, it was better with them; they
had more true comfort and enjoyment of themselves than ever they
had since they went astray. (2.) A good purpose, to come back again
to their duty: <i>I will go, and return to my first husband;</i>
and she knows so much of his goodness and readiness to forgive that
she speaks without any doubt of his receiving her again into favour
and making her condition as good as ever. Note, The disappointments
we meet with in our pursuits of satisfaction in the creature
should, if nothing else will do it, drive us at length to the
Creator, in whom alone it is to be had. When Moab is <i>weary of
the high place</i> he shall <i>go to the sanctuary,</i> <scripRef id="Hos.iii-p13.1" osisRef="Bible:Isa.16.12" parsed="|Isa|16|12|0|0" passage="Isa 16:12">Isa. xvi. 12</scripRef>. And when the prodigal
son is reduced to husks, short allowance indeed, and remembers that
<i>in his father's house there is bread enough,</i> then he says,
<i>I will arise and go to my father's house,</i> <scripRef id="Hos.iii-p13.2" osisRef="Bible:Luke.15.17-Luke.15.18" parsed="|Luke|15|17|15|18" passage="Lu 15:17,18">Luke xv. 17, 18</scripRef>.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Hos.iii-p14" shownumber="no">II. The necessary supports and comforts of
life shall be taken from them, because they had dishonoured God
with them, <scripRef id="Hos.iii-p14.1" osisRef="Bible:Hos.2.8-Hos.2.9" parsed="|Hos|2|8|2|9" passage="Ho 2:8,9"><i>v.</i> 8, 9</scripRef>.
Their land was plenteous. Now see here, 1. How graciously their
plenty was given to them. God gave them not only corn for
necessity, but wine for delight, and oil for ornament. Nay, he
<i>multiplied their silver and gold,</i> wherewith to traffic with
other nations and bring home their products, and which they might
hoard up for posterity. <i>Silver and gold</i> will keep longer
than <i>corn, and wine, and oil.</i> He gave them <i>wool</i> and
<i>flax</i> too, to <i>cover their nakedness,</i> and to serve for
ornament enough to them, <scripRef id="Hos.iii-p14.2" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.16.10" parsed="|Ezek|16|10|0|0" passage="Eze 16:10">Ezek. xvi.
10</scripRef>. Note, God is a bountiful benefactor even to those
who, he foresees, will be ungrateful and unthankful to him.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Hos.iii-p15" shownumber="no">2. How basely their plenty was abused by
them. (1.) They robbed God of the honour of his gifts: <i>She did
not know that I gave her corn and wine;</i> she did not remember
it. The law and the prophets had told them, again and again, that
all their comforts they received from God's bountiful providence;
but they were so often told by their false prophets and idolatrous
priests that they had their corn from such an idol, and their wine
from such an idol, &amp;c., that they had quite forgotten their
relation to their great benefactor and their obligations to him.
She did not consider it; she would not acknowledge it. This they
were <i>willingly ignorant of,</i> and more brutish than the ox,
that <i>knows his owner,</i> and the <i>ass, that knows his
master's crib. She did not know it,</i> for she did not return
thanks to him for his gifts, nor study what she should render; nor
did she give him his dues out of them, but acted as if she were
ignorant who was the donor. (2.) They served and honoured his
enemies with them: <i>They prepared them for Baal;</i> they adorned
their images with <i>gold and silver</i> (<scripRef id="Hos.iii-p15.1" osisRef="Bible:Jer.10.4" parsed="|Jer|10|4|0|0" passage="Jer 10:4">Jer. x. 4</scripRef>), and adorned themselves for the
worship of their images, <scripRef id="Hos.iii-p15.2" osisRef="Bible:Hos.2.13" parsed="|Hos|2|13|0|0" passage="Ho 2:13"><i>v.</i>
13</scripRef>. See <scripRef id="Hos.iii-p15.3" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.16.17-Ezek.16.19" parsed="|Ezek|16|17|16|19" passage="Eze 16:17-19">Ezek. xvi.
17-19</scripRef>. <i>Wherewith they made Baal</i> (so the margin
reads it), that is, the image of Baal. Note, It is a very great
dishonour to the God of heaven to make those gifts of his
providence the food and fuel of our lusts which he gave us for our
support in his service, and to be oil to the wheels of our
obedience.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Hos.iii-p16" shownumber="no">3. How justly their plenty should be taken
from them: "<i>Therefore will I return;</i> I will alter my
dealings with them, will take another course, <i>and will take away
my corn</i> and other good things that I gave her." I will
<i>recover</i> them, a law term, as a man by due course of law
recovers what is unjustly detained from him, or as, when the tenant
has committed waste, the landlord recovers <i>locum
vastatum—dilapidations.</i> Observe, God calls their abundance
<i>my corn</i> and <i>my wine, my wool</i> and <i>my flax.</i> They
called it theirs (<i>my bread</i> and <i>my water,</i> <scripRef id="Hos.iii-p16.1" osisRef="Bible:Hos.2.5" parsed="|Hos|2|5|0|0" passage="Ho 2:5"><i>v.</i> 5</scripRef>), but God lets them know
that it is not theirs; he only allowed them the use of it as
tenants, entrusted them with the management of it as stewards, but
still reserved the property in himself. "It is <i>my</i> corn and
<i>my</i> wine." God will have us to know, not only that we have
all our creature-comforts and enjoyments from him, but that he has
still an incontestable right and title to them, that they are more
his than ours, and therefore are to be used for him, and accounted
for to him. He will therefore take their plenty away from them,
because they have forfeited it by disowning his right, as a tenant
by copy of court-roll, who holds at the will of his lord, forfeits
his estate if he makes a feoffment of it as though he were a
freeholder. He will <i>recover</i> it, will <i>free</i> or
<i>deliver</i> it, that it may be no longer abused, as the creature
is said to be <i>delivered from the bondage of corruption</i> under
which <i>it groans,</i> <scripRef id="Hos.iii-p16.2" osisRef="Bible:Rom.8.21" parsed="|Rom|8|21|0|0" passage="Ro 8:21">Rom. viii.
21</scripRef>. He will take it away <i>in the time thereof,</i> and
<i>in the season thereof,</i> just when they expected it, and
thought that they were sure of it. It shall suffer shipwreck in the
harbour; and <i>the harvest shall be a heap.</i> He will take it
away by unseasonable weather or by unreasonable men. Note, Those
that abuse the mercies God gives them, to his dishonour, cannot
expect to enjoy them long.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Hos.iii-p17" shownumber="no">III. They shall lose <i>all their
honour,</i> and be exposed to contempt (<scripRef id="Hos.iii-p17.1" osisRef="Bible:Hos.2.10" parsed="|Hos|2|10|0|0" passage="Ho 2:10"><i>v.</i> 10</scripRef>): "<i>I will discover her
lewdness,</i> will bring to light all her secret wickedness, and
make it public, to her shame; I will show by the punishment of it
how heinous, how odious, how offensive it is. The fact has been
denied, but now it shall appear; the fault has been diminished, but
now it shall appear exceedingly sinful. And this <i>in the sight of
her lovers,</i> in the sight of the neighbouring nations, with whom
she courted an alliance, and on whom she had a dependence; they
shall despise her and be ashamed of her because of her weakness,
and poverty, and ill conduct; they shall not think her any longer
worthy of their friendship." See this fulfilled, <scripRef id="Hos.iii-p17.2" osisRef="Bible:Lam.1.8" parsed="|Lam|1|8|0|0" passage="La 1:8">Lam. i. 8</scripRef>, <i>All that honoured her despise
her, because they have seen her nakedness.</i> Or in the sight of
<i>the sun and moon,</i> which she worshipped as <i>her lovers;</i>
before them shall <i>her lewdness be discovered.</i> Compare this
with <scripRef id="Hos.iii-p17.3" osisRef="Bible:Jer.7.1-Jer.7.2" parsed="|Jer|7|1|7|2" passage="Jer 7:1,2">Jer. vii. 1, 2</scripRef>,
<i>They shall bring out the bones of their kings and princes, and
spread them before the sun and moon, whom they have loved and
served.</i> Note, Sin will have shame; let those expect it that
have done shamefully. What other lot can this impudent adulteress
expect but that of a common harlot, to be carted through the town?
And, when God comes to deal thus with her, <i>none shall deliver
her out of his hands,</i> neither the gods nor the men they confide
in. Note, Those who will not deliver themselves into the hand of
God's mercy cannot be delivered out of the hand of his justice.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Hos.iii-p18" shownumber="no">IV. They shall lose all their pleasure, and
shall be left melancholy (<scripRef id="Hos.iii-p18.1" osisRef="Bible:Hos.2.11" parsed="|Hos|2|11|0|0" passage="Ho 2:11"><i>v.</i>
11</scripRef>): <i>I will cause her mirth to cease.</i> It seems,
then, though they had <i>gone a whoring from their God,</i> yet
they could find in their hearts to <i>rejoice as other people,</i>
which is forbidden, <scripRef id="Hos.iii-p18.2" osisRef="Bible:Hos.9.1" parsed="|Hos|9|1|0|0" passage="Ho 9:1"><i>ch.</i> ix.
1</scripRef>. Note, Many who lie under guilt and wrath are yet very
jocund and merry, and live jovially; but, whether in their laughter
their hearts be sad or no, it is certain that the <i>end of their
mirth</i> will be <i>heaviness;</i> for God <i>will cause all their
mirth to cease.</i> It is as Mr. Burroughs observes here, <i>Sin
and mirth can never hold long together;</i> but, <i>if men will not
take away sin from their mirth, God will take away mirth from their
sin.</i></p>
<p class="indent" id="Hos.iii-p19" shownumber="no">1. God will take away the occasions of
their sacred mirth—<i>their feast-days, their new moons, their
sabbaths, and all their solemn feasts.</i> These God instituted to
be observed in a religious manner, and they were to be observed
with rejoicing; and, it seems, though they had departed from the
pure worship of God, yet they kept up the observance of these, not
at God's temple at Jerusalem, for they had long since forsaken
that, but probably at Dan and Bethel, where the calves were, or in
some other places of meeting that they had. They observed them, not
for the honour of God, nor with any true devotion towards him, but
only because they were times of mirth and feasting, music and
dancing, and meeting of friends, received by tradition from their
fathers. Thus, when they had lost the power of godliness, and
denied that, yet, for the pleasing of a vain and carnal mind, they
kept up the form of it; and by this means their new-moons and their
sabbaths became an iniquity which God <i>could not away with,</i>
<scripRef id="Hos.iii-p19.1" osisRef="Bible:Isa.1.13" parsed="|Isa|1|13|0|0" passage="Isa 1:13">Isa. i. 13</scripRef>. Now observe,
(1.) God calls them their new-moons and their sabbaths, not his (he
disowns them), but theirs. (2.) He will <i>cause them to cease.</i>
Note, When men by their sins have caused the life and substance of
ordinances to cease it is just with God by his judgments to cause
the remaining show and shadow of them to cease.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Hos.iii-p20" shownumber="no">2. He will take away the supports of their
carnal mind. They loved the new-moons and the sabbaths only for the
sake of the good cheer that was stirring then, not for the sake of
any religious exercises then performed; these they had dropped long
ago; and now God will take away their provisions for these
solemnities (<scripRef id="Hos.iii-p20.1" osisRef="Bible:Hos.2.12" parsed="|Hos|2|12|0|0" passage="Ho 2:12"><i>v.</i> 12</scripRef>):
<i>I will destroy her vines and her fig-trees.</i> Note, If men
destroy God's words and ordinances, by which he should be honoured
on their feast-days, it is just with him to destroy their vines and
fig-trees, with which they regale themselves. While they took the
pleasure of these, they gave their lovers the praise of them:
"<i>These are my rewards which my lovers have given me;</i> I may
thank my stars for these, and my worship of them; I may thank my
neighbours for these, and my alliance with them." And therefore God
will destroy them, will wither them with a blast, or bring in a
foreign enemy that shall lay the country waste, so that their
vineyards shall become <i>a forest;</i> the enclosures shall be
thrown down, as is usual in war; all shall be laid in common, so
that the <i>beasts of the field</i> shall eat their grapes and
their figs. Or they shall be so blasted with the east wind that
fruit-trees shall be of no more use than forest-trees; but, being
withered and good for nothing, what fruit there is shall be left to
the <i>beasts of the field.</i> Or it shall be devoured by their
enemies, by men as barbarous as wild beasts. Now, (1.) This shall
be the ruin of their mirth: God will <i>cause all her mirth to
cease.</i> How will he do it? Taking away the new-moons and the
sabbaths will not do it; they can very easily part with them, and
find no loss; but "I will <i>destroy her vines and her
fig-trees,</i> will take away her sensual pleasures, and then she
will think herself undone indeed." Note, The destruction of the
vines and the fig-trees causes all the mirth of a carnal heart to
cease; it will say, as Micah, You have <i>taken away my gods, and
what have I more?</i> (2.) This shall be the punishment of her
idolatry (<scripRef id="Hos.iii-p20.2" osisRef="Bible:Hos.2.13" parsed="|Hos|2|13|0|0" passage="Ho 2:13"><i>v.</i> 13</scripRef>):
"<i>I will visit upon her the days of Baalim;</i> I will reckon
with her for all the worship of all the Baals they have made gods
of, from the days of their fathers unto this day." We read of their
worshipping Baal as long ago as the time of the Judges, and, for
aught I know, this may look as far back as those times, those
<i>days of Baalim;</i> for it is in the second commandment, which
forbids idolatry, that God threatens to <i>visit the iniquities of
the fathers upon the children;</i> and justly is that sin so
visited, more than any other, because it commonly supports itself
by prescription and long usage. Now that the measure of the
iniquity of Israel was full all their former sins came into the
account, and shall be <i>required of this generation.</i> Or the
<i>days of Baalim</i> are the solemn festival days which they kept
in honour of their idols. Days of sinful mirth must be visited in
days of mourning. These were the days wherein she <i>burnt
incense</i> to idols, and, to grace the solemnity, <i>decked
herself with her ear-rings and her jewels,</i> that, appearing
honourable, the honour she did to Baal might be thought the
greater. Or she was as a wife that decks herself with the ear-rings
and jewels that her husband gave her, to make herself amiable to
her lovers, whom she follows after, and is ever mindful of. But
<i>she forgot me, saith the Lord.</i> Note, Our treacherous
departures from God are owing to our forgetfulness of him, of his
nature and attributes, his relation to us and our obligations to
him. Many who plead that they have weak memories, and forget the
things of God, can remember other things well enough; nay, it is
because they are so mindful of lying vanities that they are so
forgetful of their own mercies.</p>
</div><scripCom id="Hos.iii-p20.3" osisRef="Bible:Hos.2.14-Hos.2.23" parsed="|Hos|2|14|2|23" passage="Ho 2:14-23" type="Commentary"/><div class="Commentary" id="Hos.iii-p20.4">
<h4 id="Hos.iii-p20.5">Promises of Mercy. (<span class="smallcaps" id="Hos.iii-p20.6">b. c.</span> 764.)</h4>
<p class="passage" id="Hos.iii-p21" shownumber="no">14 Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and
bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her.
  15 And I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the
valley of Achor for a door of hope: and she shall sing there, as in
the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of
the land of Egypt.   16 And it shall be at that day, saith the
<span class="smallcaps" id="Hos.iii-p21.1">Lord</span>, <i>that</i> thou shalt call me
Ishi; and shalt call me no more Baali.   17 For I will take
away the names of Baalim out of her mouth, and they shall no more
be remembered by their name.   18 And in that day will I make
a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, and with the
fowls of heaven, and <i>with</i> the creeping things of the ground:
and I will break the bow and the sword and the battle out of the
earth, and will make them to lie down safely.   19 And I will
betroth thee unto me for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in
righteousness, and in judgment, and in lovingkindness, and in
mercies.   20 I will even betroth thee unto me in
faithfulness: and thou shalt know the <span class="smallcaps" id="Hos.iii-p21.2">Lord</span>.   21 And it shall come to pass in
that day, I will hear, saith the <span class="smallcaps" id="Hos.iii-p21.3">Lord</span>, I will hear the heavens, and they shall
hear the earth;   22 And the earth shall hear the corn, and
the wine, and the oil; and they shall hear Jezreel.   23 And I
will sow her unto me in the earth; and I will have mercy upon her
that had not obtained mercy; and I will say to <i>them which
were</i> not my people, Thou <i>art</i> my people; and they shall
say, <i>Thou art</i> my God.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Hos.iii-p22" shownumber="no">The state of Israel ruined by their own sin
did not look so black and dismal in the former part of the chapter,
but that the state of Israel, restrained by the divine grace, looks
as bright and pleasant here in the latter part of the chapter, and
the more surprisingly so as the promises follow thus close upon the
threatenings; nay, which is very strange, they are by a note of
connexion joined to, and inferred from, that declaration of their
sinfulness upon which the threatenings of their ruin are grounded:
<i>She went after her lovers, and forgot me, saith the Lord;
therefore I will allure her.</i> Fitly therefore is that
<i>therefore</i> which is the note of connexion immediately
followed with a note of admiration: <i>Behold I will allure
her!</i> When it was said, <i>She forgot me,</i> one would think it
should have followed, "Therefore I will abandon her, I will forget
her, I will never look after her more." No, <i>Therefore I will
allure her.</i> Note, God's thoughts and ways of mercy are
infinitely above ours; his reasons are all fetched from within
himself, and not from any thing in us; nay, his goodness takes
occasion from man's badness to appear so much the more illustrious,
<scripRef id="Hos.iii-p22.1" osisRef="Bible:Isa.57.17-Isa.57.18" parsed="|Isa|57|17|57|18" passage="Isa 57:17,18">Isa. lvii. 17, 18</scripRef>.
<i>Therefore,</i> because she will not be restrained by the
denunciations of wrath, God will try whether she will be wrought
upon by the offers of mercy. Some think it may be translated,
<i>Afterwards,</i> or <i>nevertheless,</i> I will allure her. It
comes all to one; the design is plainly to magnify free grace to
those on whom God will have mercy purely for mercy's sake. Now that
which is here promised to Israel is,</p>
<p class="indent" id="Hos.iii-p23" shownumber="no">I. That though now they were disconsolate,
and ready to despair, they should again be revived with comforts
and hopes, <scripRef id="Hos.iii-p23.1" osisRef="Bible:Hos.2.14-Hos.2.15" parsed="|Hos|2|14|2|15" passage="Ho 2:14,15"><i>v.</i> 14,
15</scripRef>. This is expressed here with an allusion to God's
dealings with that people when he brought them out of Egypt,
through the wilderness to Canaan, as their forlorn and deplorable
condition in their captivity was compared to their state in
<i>Egypt in the day that they were born,</i> <scripRef id="Hos.iii-p23.2" osisRef="Bible:Hos.2.3" parsed="|Hos|2|3|0|0" passage="Ho 2:3"><i>v.</i> 3</scripRef>. They shall be new-formed by such
miracles of love and mercy as they were first-formed by, and such a
transport of joy shall they be in as they were in then. It is hard
to say when this had its accomplishment in the kingdom of the ten
tribes; but it principally aims, no doubt, at the bringing in both
of Jews and Gentiles into the church by the gospel of Christ; and
it is applicable, nay, we have reason to think it was designed that
it should be applied, to the conversion of particular souls to God.
Now observe,</p>
<p class="indent" id="Hos.iii-p24" shownumber="no">1. The gracious methods God will take with
them. (1.) He will <i>bring them into the wilderness,</i> as he did
at first when he brought them out of Egypt, where he instructed
them, and took them into covenant with himself. The land of their
captivity shall be to them now, as that wilderness was then, the
<i>furnace of affliction,</i> in which God will <i>choose them.</i>
See <scripRef id="Hos.iii-p24.1" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.20.35-Ezek.20.36" parsed="|Ezek|20|35|20|36" passage="Eze 20:35,36">Ezek. xx. 35, 36</scripRef>,
<i>I will bring you into the wilderness of the people, and there
will I plead with you.</i> God had said that he would <i>make them
as a wilderness</i> (<scripRef id="Hos.iii-p24.2" osisRef="Bible:Hos.2.3" parsed="|Hos|2|3|0|0" passage="Ho 2:3"><i>v.</i>
3</scripRef>), which was a threatening; now, when it is here made
part of a promise that he would bring them into the wilderness, the
meaning may be that he would by his grace bring their minds to
their condition: "They shall have humble hearts under humbling
providences; being poor, they shall be poor in spirit, shall
<i>accept of the punishment of their iniquity,</i> and then they
are prepared to have comfort spoken to them." When God delivered
Israel out of Egypt he led them into the wilderness, to <i>humble
them and prove them, that he might do them good</i> (<scripRef id="Hos.iii-p24.3" osisRef="Bible:Deut.8.2-Deut.8.3 Bible:Deut.8.15 Bible:Deut.8.16" parsed="|Deut|8|2|8|3;|Deut|8|15|0|0;|Deut|8|16|0|0" passage="De 8:2,3,15,16">Deut. viii. 2, 3, 15, 16</scripRef>), and
so he will do again. Note, Those whom God has mercy in store for he
first <i>brings into a wilderness</i>—into solitude and
retirement, that they may the more freely converse with him out of
the noise of this world,—into distress of mind, through sense of
guilt and dread of wrath, which brings a soul to be quite at a loss
in itself and bewildered, and by those convictions he prepares for
consolations,—and sometimes into outward distress and trouble,
thereby to open the ear to discipline. (2.) He will then <i>allure
them and speak comfortably to them,</i> will <i>persuade them</i>
and <i>speak to their hearts,</i> that is, he will by his word and
Spirit incline their hearts to return to him, and encourage them to
do so. He will allure them with the promises of his favour, as
before he had terrified them with the threatenings of his wrath,
will speak friendly to them, both by his prophets and by his
providences, as before he had spoken roughly, <scripRef id="Hos.iii-p24.4" osisRef="Bible:Isa.40.1-Isa.40.2" parsed="|Isa|40|1|40|2" passage="Isa 40:1,2">Isa. xl. 1, 2</scripRef>. <i>By the hand of my
servants the prophets I will speak comfort to her heart;</i> so the
Chaldee. This refers to the gospel of Christ, and the offers of
divine grace in the gospel, by which we are allured to forsake our
sins and to turn to God, and which speaks to the heart of a
convinced sinner that which is every way suited to his case, speaks
abundant consolation to those that sorrow for sin and lament after
the Lord. And when by the Spirit it is indeed spoken to the heart
effectually, and so as to reach the conscience (which it is God's
prerogative to do), O what a blessed change is wrought by it! Note,
The best way of reducing wandering souls to God is by fair means.
By the promise of rest in Christ we are invited to take his yoke
upon us; and the work of conversion may be forwarded by comforts as
well as by convictions. (3.) <i>He will give her her vineyards
thence.</i> From that time and from that place where he has
afflicted her, and brought her to see her folly and to humble
herself, thenceforward he will <i>do her good;</i> not only speak
comfortably to her, but do well for her, and undo what he had done
against her. He had <i>destroyed her vines</i> (<scripRef id="Hos.iii-p24.5" osisRef="Bible:Hos.2.12" parsed="|Hos|2|12|0|0" passage="Ho 2:12"><i>v.</i> 12</scripRef>), but now he will give her whole
<i>vineyards,</i> as if for every vine destroyed she should have a
vineyard restored, and so be repaid with interest; she shall not
only have corn for necessity, but vineyards for delight. These
denote the privileges and comforts of the gospel, which are
prepared for those that <i>come up out of the wilderness leaning
upon</i> Christ as <i>their beloved,</i> <scripRef id="Hos.iii-p24.6" osisRef="Bible:Song.8.5" parsed="|Song|8|5|0|0" passage="So 8:5">Cant. viii. 5</scripRef>. Note, God has vineyards of
consolation ready to bestow on those who repent and return to him;
and he can give vineyards <i>out of a wilderness,</i> which are of
all others the most welcome, as rest to the weary. (4.) He will
give her <i>the valley of Achor for a door of hope. The valley of
Achor</i> was that in which Achan was stoned; it signifies <i>the
valley of trouble,</i> because he troubled Israel, and there God
troubled him. This was the beginning of the wars of Canaan; and
their putting away the accursed thing in that place gave them
ground to hope that God would continue his presence with them and
complete their victories. So when God returns to his people in
mercy, and they to him in duty, it will be to them as happy an omen
as any thing. If they put away the accursed thing from among them,
if by mortifying sin they stone the Achan that has troubled their
camp, their subduing that enemy within themselves is an earnest to
them of victory over all the kings of Canaan. Or, if the allusion
be to the name, it intimates that trouble for sin, if it be
sincere, opens a door of hope; for that sin which truly troubles us
shall not ruin us. The valley of Achor was a very fruitful pleasant
valley, some think the same with the valley of Engedi, famous for
vineyards, <scripRef id="Hos.iii-p24.7" osisRef="Bible:Song.1.14" parsed="|Song|1|14|0|0" passage="So 1:14">Cant. i. 14</scripRef>. This
God gave to Israel as a pattern and pledge of the whole land of
Canaan; so "God will by his gospel give to all believers such
gifts, graces, and comforts in this life, as shall be a taste of
those more perfect good things of the kingdom of heaven, and shall
give them as assured hope of a full possession of them in due
time." So the learned Dr. Pocock expounds it; and, to the same
purport, this whole context.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Hos.iii-p25" shownumber="no">2. The great rejoicing with which they
shall receive God's gracious returns towards them: <i>She shall
sing there as in the days of her youth.</i> This plainly refers to
that triumphant and prophetic song which Moses and the children of
Israel sang at the <i>Red Sea,</i> <scripRef id="Hos.iii-p25.1" osisRef="Bible:Exod.15.1" parsed="|Exod|15|1|0|0" passage="Ex 15:1">Exod. xv. 1</scripRef>. When they are delivered out of
captivity they shall repeat that song, and to them it shall be a
new song, because sung upon a new occasion, not inferior to the
former. God had said (<scripRef id="Hos.iii-p25.2" osisRef="Bible:Hos.2.11" parsed="|Hos|2|11|0|0" passage="Ho 2:11"><i>v.</i>
11</scripRef>) that he would <i>cause all her mirth to cease,</i>
but now he would cause it to revive: She shall sing <i>as in the
day that she came out of Egypt.</i> Note, When God repeats former
mercies we must repeat former praises; we find the song of Moses
sung in the New Testament, <scripRef id="Hos.iii-p25.3" osisRef="Bible:Rev.15.3" parsed="|Rev|15|3|0|0" passage="Re 15:3">Rev. xv.
3</scripRef>. This promise of Israel's singing has its
accomplishment in the gospel of Christ, which furnishes us with
abundant matter for joy and praise, and wherever it is received in
its power enlarges the heart in joy and praise; and this is that
land flowing with milk and honey which <i>the valley of Achor</i>
opens <i>a door of hope to.</i> We <i>rejoice in
tribulation.</i></p>
<p class="indent" id="Hos.iii-p26" shownumber="no">II. That, though they had been much
addicted to the worship of Baal, they should now be perfectly
weaned from it, should relinquish and abandon all appearances of
idolatry and approaches towards it, and cleave to God only, and
worship him as he appoints, <scripRef id="Hos.iii-p26.1" osisRef="Bible:Hos.2.16-Hos.2.17" parsed="|Hos|2|16|2|17" passage="Ho 2:16,17"><i>v.</i> 16, 17</scripRef>. Note, The surest pledge
and token of God's favour to any people is his effectual parting
between them and their beloved sins. The worship of Baal was the
sin that did most easily beset the people of Israel; it was their
own iniquity, the sin that had dominion over them; but now that
idolatry shall be quite abolished, and there shall not be the least
remains of it among them. 1. The idols of Baal shall not be
mentioned, not any of the Baals that <i>in the days of Baalim</i>
had made so great a noise with, <i>O Baal! hear us; O Baal! hear
us.</i> The very <i>names of Baalim</i> shall be <i>taken out of
their mouths;</i> they shall be so disused that they shall be quite
forgotten, as if their names had never been known in Israel; they
shall be so detested that people will not bear to mention them
themselves, nor to hear others mention them, so that posterity
shall scarcely know that ever there were such things. They shall be
so ashamed of their former love to Baal that they shall do all they
can to blot out the remembrance of it. They shall tie themselves up
to the strictest literal meaning of that law against idolatry
(<scripRef id="Hos.iii-p26.2" osisRef="Bible:Exod.23.13" parsed="|Exod|23|13|0|0" passage="Ex 23:13">Exod. xxiii. 13</scripRef>), <i>Make
no mention of the names of other gods, neither let it be heard out
of thy mouth,</i> as David, <scripRef id="Hos.iii-p26.3" osisRef="Bible:Ps.16.4" parsed="|Ps|16|4|0|0" passage="Ps 16:4">Ps. xvi.
4</scripRef>. Thus the apostle expresses the abhorrence we ought to
have of all fleshly lusts: <i>Let them not be once named among
you,</i> <scripRef id="Hos.iii-p26.4" osisRef="Bible:Eph.5.3" parsed="|Eph|5|3|0|0" passage="Eph 5:3">Eph. v. 3</scripRef>. But how
can such a change of the Ethiopian's skin be wrought? It is
answered, The power of God can do it, and will. <i>I will take away
the names of Baalim;</i> as <scripRef id="Hos.iii-p26.5" osisRef="Bible:Zech.13.2" parsed="|Zech|13|2|0|0" passage="Zec 13:2">Zech.
xiii. 2</scripRef>, <i>I will cut off the names of the idols.</i>
Note, God's grace in the heart will change the language by making
that iniquity to be loathed which was beloved. <scripRef id="Hos.iii-p26.6" osisRef="Bible:Zeph.3.9" parsed="|Zeph|3|9|0|0" passage="Zep 3:9">Zeph. iii. 9</scripRef>, <i>I will turn to the people a
pure language.</i> One of the rabbin says, This promise relates to
the Gentiles, by the gospel of Christ, from the idolatries which
they had been wedded to, <scripRef id="Hos.iii-p26.7" osisRef="Bible:1Thess.1.9" parsed="|1Thess|1|9|0|0" passage="1Th 1:9">1 Thess. i.
9</scripRef>. 2. The very word Baal shall be laid aside, even in
its innocent signification. God says, <i>Thou shalt call me Ishi,
and call me no more Baali;</i> both signify <i>my husband,</i> and
both had been made use of concerning God. <scripRef id="Hos.iii-p26.8" osisRef="Bible:Isa.54.5" parsed="|Isa|54|5|0|0" passage="Isa 54:5">Isa. liv. 5</scripRef>, <i>Thy Maker is thy husband,</i>
thy <i>Baal</i> (so the word is), thy owner, patron, and protector.
It is probable that many good people had, accordingly, made use of
the word <i>Baali</i> in worshipping the God of Israel; when their
wicked neighbours bowed the knee to Baal they gloried in this, that
God was their Baal. "But," says God, "you shall call me so no more,
because I will have the very names of Baalim taken away." Note,
That which is very innocent in itself should, when it has been
abused to idolatry, be abolished, and the very use of it taken
away, that nothing may be done to keep idols in remembrance, much
less to keep them in reputation. When calling God <i>Ishi</i> will
do as well, and signify as much, as <i>Baali,</i> let that word be
chosen rather, lest, by calling him Baali, others should be put in
mind of their <i>quondam</i> Baals. Some think that there is
another reason intimated why God would be called <i>Ishi</i> and
not <i>Baali;</i> they both signify <i>my husband,</i> but
<i>Ishi</i> is a compellation of love, and sweetness, and
familiarity, <i>Baali</i> of reverence and subjection. Ishi is
<i>vir meus—my man;</i> Baali is <i>dominus meus—my lord.</i> In
gospel-times God has so revealed himself to us as to encourage us
to come boldly to the throne of his grace, and to use a holy humble
freedom there; we ought to call God our Master, for so he is, but
we are more taught to call him our Father. <i>Ishi</i> is <i>a man
the Lord</i> (<scripRef id="Hos.iii-p26.9" osisRef="Bible:Gen.4.1" parsed="|Gen|4|1|0|0" passage="Ge 4:1">Gen. iv. 1</scripRef>),
and intimates that in gospel-times the church's husband shall be
<i>the man Christ Jesus,</i> made like unto his brethren, and
therefore they shall call him <i>Ishi,</i> not <i>Baali.</i></p>
<p class="indent" id="Hos.iii-p27" shownumber="no">III. That though they had been in continual
troubles, as if the whole creation had been at war with them, now
they shall enjoy perfect peace and tranquillity, as if they were in
a league of friendship with the whole creation (<scripRef id="Hos.iii-p27.1" osisRef="Bible:Hos.2.18" parsed="|Hos|2|18|0|0" passage="Ho 2:18"><i>v.</i> 18</scripRef>): <i>In that day,</i> when they
have forsaken their idols, and put themselves under the divine
protection, <i>I will make a covenant for them.</i> 1. They shall
be protected from evil; nothing shall hurt them, nor do them any
mischief. <i>Tranquillus Deus tranquillat amnia—When God is at
peace with us he makes every creature to be so too.</i> The
inferior creatures shall do them no harm, as they had done when the
<i>beasts of the field</i> ate up their vineyards (<scripRef id="Hos.iii-p27.2" osisRef="Bible:Hos.2.12" parsed="|Hos|2|12|0|0" passage="Ho 2:12"><i>v.</i> 12</scripRef>) and when <i>noisome
beasts</i> were one of God's <i>sore judgments,</i> <scripRef id="Hos.iii-p27.3" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.14.15" parsed="|Ezek|14|15|0|0" passage="Eze 14:15">Ezek. xiv. 15</scripRef>. The <i>fowl</i> and
the <i>creeping things</i> are taken into this covenant; for they
also, when God makes use of them as the instruments of his justice,
may be come very hurtful, but they shall be no more so; nay, by
virtue of this covenant, they shall be made serviceable to them and
brought into their interests. Note, God has the command of the
inferior creatures, and brings them into what covenant he pleases;
he can make <i>the beasts of the field</i> to <i>honour</i> him (so
he has promised, <scripRef id="Hos.iii-p27.4" osisRef="Bible:Isa.43.20" parsed="|Isa|43|20|0|0" passage="Isa 43:20">Isa. xliii.
20</scripRef>) and to contribute to his people's comfort. And, if
the inferior creatures are thus laid under an engagement to serve
us, it is our part of the covenant not to abuse them, but to serve
God with them. Some think that this had its accomplishment in the
miraculous power Christ gave his disciples to <i>take up
serpents,</i> <scripRef id="Hos.iii-p27.5" osisRef="Bible:Mark.16.17-Mark.16.18" parsed="|Mark|16|17|16|18" passage="Mk 16:17,18">Mark xvi. 17,
18</scripRef>. It agrees with the promises made particularly to
Israel, in their return out of captivity (<scripRef id="Hos.iii-p27.6" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.34.25" parsed="|Ezek|34|25|0|0" passage="Eze 34:25">Ezek. xxxiv. 25</scripRef>, <i>I will cause the evil
beasts to cease out of the land</i>), and the more general ones to
all the saints. <scripRef id="Hos.iii-p27.7" osisRef="Bible:Job.5.22-Job.5.23" parsed="|Job|5|22|5|23" passage="Job 5:22,23">Job v. 22,
23</scripRef>, <i>The beasts of the field shall be at peace with
thee;</i> and <scripRef id="Hos.iii-p27.8" osisRef="Bible:Ps.91.13" parsed="|Ps|91|13|0|0" passage="Ps 91:13">Ps. xci. 13</scripRef>,
<i>Thou shalt tread upon the lion and the adder.</i> But this is
not all; men are more in danger from one another than from the
brute beast, and therefore it is further promised that God will
<i>make wars to cease,</i> will disarm the enemy: <i>I will break
the bow, and sword, and battle.</i> He can do it when he pleases
(<scripRef id="Hos.iii-p27.9" osisRef="Bible:Ps.44.9" parsed="|Ps|44|9|0|0" passage="Ps 44:9">Ps. xliv. 9</scripRef>), and will do
it for those whose <i>ways please him,</i> for he <i>makes even
their enemies to be at peace with them,</i> <scripRef id="Hos.iii-p27.10" osisRef="Bible:Prov.16.7" parsed="|Prov|16|7|0|0" passage="Pr 16:7">Prov. xvi. 7</scripRef>. This agrees with the promise
that in gospel-times <i>swords shall be beaten into
plough-shares,</i> <scripRef id="Hos.iii-p27.11" osisRef="Bible:Isa.2.4" parsed="|Isa|2|4|0|0" passage="Isa 2:4">Isa. ii.
4</scripRef>. 2. They shall be quiet from the fear of evil. God
will not only keep them safe, but <i>make them to lie down
safely,</i> as those that know themselves to be under the
protection of Heaven, and therefore are not afraid of the powers of
hell.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Hos.iii-p28" shownumber="no">IV. That, though God had given them a bill
of divorce for their whoredoms, yet, upon their repentance, he
would again take them into covenant with himself, into a
marriage-covenant, <scripRef id="Hos.iii-p28.1" osisRef="Bible:Hos.2.19-Hos.2.20" parsed="|Hos|2|19|2|20" passage="Ho 2:19,20"><i>v.</i> 19,
20</scripRef>. God's making a covenant for them with the inferior
creatures was a great favour; but it was nothing to this, that he
took them into covenant with himself and engaged himself to do them
good. Observe,</p>
<p class="indent" id="Hos.iii-p29" shownumber="no">1. The nature of this covenant; it is a
<i>marriage-covenant,</i> founded in choice and love, and founding
the nearest relation: <i>I will betroth thee unto me;</i> and
again, and a third time, <i>I will betroth thee.</i> Note, All that
are sincerely devoted to God are betrothed to him; God gives them
the most sacred and inviolable security imaginable that he will
love them, protect them, and provide for them, that he will do the
part of a husband to them, and that he will incline their hearts to
join themselves to him and will graciously accept of them in so
doing. Believing souls are espoused to Christ, <scripRef id="Hos.iii-p29.1" osisRef="Bible:2Cor.11.2" parsed="|2Cor|11|2|0|0" passage="2Co 11:2">2 Cor. xi. 2</scripRef>. The gospel-church is <i>the
bride, the Lamb's wife;</i> and they would never come into that
relation to him if he did not by the power of his grace betroth
them to himself. The separation begins on our side; we alienate
ourselves from God. The coalition begins on his side; he betroths
us to himself.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Hos.iii-p30" shownumber="no">2. The duration of this covenant: "<i>I
will betroth thee for ever.</i> The covenant itself shall be
inviolable; God will not break it on his part, and you shall not on
yours; and the blessings of it shall be everlasting." One of the
Jewish rabbin says, This is a promise that <i>she shall attain to
the life of the world to come, which is absolute eternity or
perpetuity.</i></p>
<p class="indent" id="Hos.iii-p31" shownumber="no">3. The manner in which this covenant shall
be made. (1.) In <i>righteousness and judgment,</i> that is, God
will deal sincerely and uprightly in covenant with them; they have
broken covenant, and God is righteous. "But," says God, "I will
renew the covenant <i>in righteousness.</i>" The matter shall be so
ordered that God may receive even these backsliding children into
his family again, without any reflection upon his justice, nay, his
justice being satisfied by the Mediator of this covenant very much
to the honour of it. But what reason can there be why God should
take a people into covenant with him that had so often dealt
treacherously? Will it not reflect upon his wisdom? "No," says God;
"I will do it <i>in judgment,</i> not rashly, but upon due
consideration; let me alone to give a reason for it and to justify
my own conduct." (2.) <i>In lovingkindness and in mercies.</i> God
will deal tenderly and graciously in covenanting with them; and
will be not only as good as his word, but better; and, as he will
be just in keeping covenant with them, so he will be merciful in
keeping them in the covenant. They are subject to many infirmities,
and, if he be extreme to mark what they do amiss, they will soon
lose the benefit of the covenant. He therefore promises that it
shall be a covenant of grace, made in a compassionate consideration
of their infirmities, so that every transgression in the covenant
shall not throw them out of covenant; he will <i>gather with
everlasting lovingkindness.</i> (3.) <i>In faithfulness.</i> Every
article of the covenant shall be punctually performed. <i>Faithful
is he that has called them, who also will do it;</i> he cannot
<i>deny himself.</i></p>
<p class="indent" id="Hos.iii-p32" shownumber="no">4. The means by which they shall be kept
tight and faithful to the covenant on their part: <i>Thou shalt
know the Lord.</i> This is not only a promise that God will reveal
himself to them more fully and clearly than ever, but that he will
give them <i>a heart to know him;</i> they shall know more of him,
and shall know him in another manner than ever yet. The ground of
their apostasy was their not knowing God to be their benefactor
(<scripRef id="Hos.iii-p32.1" osisRef="Bible:Hos.2.8" parsed="|Hos|2|8|0|0" passage="Ho 2:8"><i>v.</i> 8</scripRef>); therefore, to
prevent the like, they shall all be <i>taught of God</i> to know
him. Note, God keeps up his interest in men's souls by giving them
a good understanding and a right knowledge of things, <scripRef id="Hos.iii-p32.2" osisRef="Bible:Heb.8.11" parsed="|Heb|8|11|0|0" passage="Heb 8:11">Heb. viii. 11</scripRef>.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Hos.iii-p33" shownumber="no">V. That, though the heavens had been to
them as brass, and the earth as iron, now the heavens shall yield
their dews, and by that means the earth its fruits, <scripRef id="Hos.iii-p33.1" osisRef="Bible:Hos.2.21-Hos.2.22" parsed="|Hos|2|21|2|22" passage="Ho 2:21,22"><i>v.</i> 21, 22</scripRef>. God having
betrothed the gospel-church and in it all believers to himself, how
shall he not with himself and with his Son freely <i>give them all
things,</i> all things pertaining both to life and godliness, all
things they need or can desire? <i>All is theirs,</i> for they are
<i>Christ's,</i> betrothed to him; and with the righteousness of
the kingdom of God, which they <i>seek first,</i> all <i>other
things</i> shall be <i>added unto them.</i> And yet this promise of
<i>corn and wine</i> is to be taken also in a spiritual sense (so
the learned Dr. Pocock thinks): it is an effusion of those
blessings and graces which relate to the soul that is here promised
under the metaphor of temporal blessings, the dew of heaven, as
well as the fatness of the earth, and that put first, as in the
blessing of Jacob, <scripRef id="Hos.iii-p33.2" osisRef="Bible:Gen.27.28" parsed="|Gen|27|28|0|0" passage="Ge 27:28">Gen. xxvii.
28</scripRef>. God had threatened (<scripRef id="Hos.iii-p33.3" osisRef="Bible:Hos.2.9" parsed="|Hos|2|9|0|0" passage="Ho 2:9"><i>v.</i> 9</scripRef>) that he would <i>take away the
corn and the wine;</i> but now he promises to restore them, and
that in the common course and order of nature. While they lay under
the judgment of famine they called to the earth for <i>corn and
wine</i> for the support of themselves and their families. Very
gladly would the earth have supplied them, but she cannot give
unless she receive, cannot produce <i>corn and wine</i> unless she
be <i>enriched with the river of God</i> (<scripRef id="Hos.iii-p33.4" osisRef="Bible:Ps.65.9" parsed="|Ps|65|9|0|0" passage="Ps 65:9">Ps. lxv. 9</scripRef>); and therefore she calls to the
heavens for rain, the former and latter rain in their season,
grapes for it, and by her melancholy aspect when rain is denied
pleads for it. "But," say the heavens, "we have no rain to give
unless he who has the key of the clouds unlock them, and open these
bottles; so that, <i>if the Lord do not help you,</i> we cannot."
But, when God takes them into covenant with himself, then the wheel
of nature shall be set a-going again in favour of them, and the
streams of mercy shall flow in the usual channel: Then <i>I will
hear, saith the Lord; I will receive your prayers</i> (so the
Chaldee interprets the first <i>hearing</i>); God will graciously
take notice of their addresses to him. And then <i>I will hear the
heavens;</i> I will <i>answer</i> them (so it may be read); and
then they shall <i>hear and answer the earth,</i> and pour down
seasonable rain upon it; and then the <i>earth</i> shall <i>hear
the corn and vines,</i> and supply them with moisture, and <i>they
shall hear Jezreel,</i> and be nourishment and refreshment for
those that inhabit Jezreel. See here the coherence of second causes
with one another, as links in a chain, and the necessary dependence
they all have upon God, the first Cause. Note, We must expect all
our comforts from God in the usual method and by the appointed
means; and, when we are at any time disappointed in them, we must
look up to God, <i>above the hills and the mountains,</i> <scripRef id="Hos.iii-p33.5" osisRef="Bible:Ps.121.1-Ps.121.2" parsed="|Ps|121|1|121|2" passage="Ps 121:1,2">Ps. cxxi. 1, 2</scripRef>. See how ready the
creatures are to serve the people of God, how desirous of the
honour: the corn cries to the earth, the earth to the heavens, the
heavens to God, and all that they may supply them. And see how
ready God is to give relief: <i>I will hear,</i> saith the Lord,
<i>yea, I will hear.</i> And, if God will hear the cry of the
heavens for his people, much more will he hear the intercession of
his Son for them, who is made <i>higher than the heavens.</i> See
what a peculiar delight those that are in covenant with God may
take in their creature-comforts, as seeing them all come to them
from the hand of God; they can trace up all the streams to the
fountain, and taste covenant-love in common mercies, which makes
them doubly sweet.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Hos.iii-p34" shownumber="no">VI. That whereas they were now dispersed,
not only, as Simeon and Levi, divided in Jacob and scattered in
Israel, but divided and scattered all the world over, God will turn
this curse, as he did that, into a blessing: "I will not only water
the earth for her, but will <i>sow her unto me in the earth;</i>
her dispersion shall be not like that of the chaff in the floor,
which <i>the wind drives away,</i> but like that of the seed in the
field, in order to its greater increase; wherever they are
scattered they shall <i>take root downward and bear fruit upward.
The good seed are the children of the kingdom. I will sow her unto
me.</i>" This alludes to the name of Jezreel, which signifies
<i>sown of God,</i> or <i>for God;</i> as she was scattered of him
(which is one signification of the words) so she shall be sown of
him; and to what he sows he will give the increase. When in all
parts of the world Christianity got footing, and every where there
were professors of it, then this promise was fulfilled, <i>I will
sow her unto me in the earth.</i> Note, The greatest blessing of
this earth is that God has a church in it, and from that arises all
the tribute of glory which he has out of it; it is what he has sown
to himself, and what he will therefore secure to himself.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Hos.iii-p35" shownumber="no">VII. That, whereas they had been
<i>Lo-ammi—not a people,</i> and <i>Lo-ruhamah—not finding
mercy</i> with God, now they shall be restored to his favour and
taken again into covenant with him (<scripRef id="Hos.iii-p35.1" osisRef="Bible:Hos.2.23" parsed="|Hos|2|23|0|0" passage="Ho 2:23"><i>v.</i> 23</scripRef>): They <i>had not obtained
mercy,</i> but seemed to be abandoned; they were <i>not my
people,</i> not distinguished, not dealt with, as my people, but
left to lie in common with the nations. This was the case with the
rejected Jews; and the same, or more deplorable, was that of the
Gentile world (to whom the apostle applies this, <scripRef id="Hos.iii-p35.2" osisRef="Bible:Rom.9.24-Rom.9.25" parsed="|Rom|9|24|9|25" passage="Ro 9:24,25">Rom. ix. 24, 25</scripRef>), that had <i>no hope,</i>
and was <i>without God in the world;</i> but when great multitudes
both of Jews and Gentiles were, upon their believing in Christ,
incorporated into a Christian church, then, 1. God had mercy on
those who <i>had not obtained mercy.</i> Those found favour with
God, and became the children of his love, who had been long out of
favour and the children of his wrath, and, if infinite mercy had
not interposed, would have been for ever so. Note, God's mercy must
not be despaired of any where on this side hell. 2. He took those
into a covenant-relation to himself who had been strangers and
foreigners. He says to them, "<i>Thou art my people,</i> whom I
will own and bless, protect and provide for;" and they shall say,
"<i>Thou art my God,</i> whom I will serve and worship, and to
whose honour I will be entirely and for ever devoted." Note, (1.)
The sum total of the happiness of believers is the mutual relation
that is between them and God, that he is theirs and they are his;
this is the crown of all the promises. (2.) This relation is
founded in free grace. We have not chosen him, but he has chosen
us. He first says, They are my people, and makes them willing to be
so in the day of his power, and then they avouch him to be theirs.
(3.) As we need desire no more to make us happy than to be the
people of God, so we need desire no more to make us easy and
cheerful than to have him to assure us that we are so, to say unto
us, by his Spirit witnessing with ours, <i>Thou art my people.</i>
(4.) Those that have accepted the Lord for their God must avouch
him to be so, must go to him in prayer and tell him so, <i>Thou art
my God,</i> and must be ready to make profession before men. (5.)
It adds to the comfort of our covenant with God that in it there is
a communion of saints, who, though they <i>are many,</i> yet here
are one. It is not, I will <i>say to them, You are my people,</i>
but, <i>Thou</i> art; for he looks upon them as all <i>one in
Christ,</i> and, as such in him, he speaks to them and covenants
with them; and they also do not say, Thou art <i>our God,</i> for
they look upon themselves as one body, and desire with one mind and
one mouth to glorify him, and therefore say, <i>Thou art my
God.</i> Or it intimates that such a covenant as God made of old
with his people Israel, in general, now under the gospel he makes
with particular believers, and says to <i>each of them,</i> even
the meanest, with as much pleasure as he did of old to the
<i>thousands of Israel, Thou art my people,</i> and invites and
encourages each of them to say, <i>Thou art my God,</i> and to
triumph therein, as Moses and all Israel did. <scripRef id="Hos.iii-p35.3" osisRef="Bible:Exod.15.2" parsed="|Exod|15|2|0|0" passage="Ex 15:2">Exod. xv. 2</scripRef>, He is <i>my God,</i> and my
<i>father's God.</i></p>
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