mh_parser/vol_split/28 - Hosea/Chapter 11.xml

<div2 id="Hos.xii" n="xii" next="Hos.xiii" prev="Hos.xi" progress="78.32%" title="Chapter XI">
<h2 id="Hos.xii-p0.1">H O S E A.</h2>
<h3 id="Hos.xii-p0.2">CHAP. XI.</h3>
<p class="intro" id="Hos.xii-p1" shownumber="no">In this chapter we have, I. The great goodness of
God towards his people Israel, and the great things he had done for
them, <scripRef id="Hos.xii-p1.1" osisRef="Bible:Hos.11.1 Bible:Hos.11.3 Bible:Hos.11.4" parsed="|Hos|11|1|0|0;|Hos|11|3|0|0;|Hos|11|4|0|0" passage="Ho 11:1,3,4">ver. 1, 3, 4</scripRef>. II.
Their ungrateful conduct towards him, notwithstanding his favours
towards them, <scripRef id="Hos.xii-p1.2" osisRef="Bible:Hos.11.2-Hos.11.4 Bible:Hos.11.7 Bible:Hos.11.12" parsed="|Hos|11|2|11|4;|Hos|11|7|0|0;|Hos|11|12|0|0" passage="Ho 11:2-4,7,12">ver. 2-4, 7,
12</scripRef>. III. Threatenings of wrath against them for their
ingratitude and treachery, <scripRef id="Hos.xii-p1.3" osisRef="Bible:Hos.11.5-Hos.11.6" parsed="|Hos|11|5|11|6" passage="Ho 11:5,6">ver. 5,
6</scripRef>. IV. Mercy remembered in the midst of wrath, <scripRef id="Hos.xii-p1.4" osisRef="Bible:Hos.11.8-Hos.11.9" parsed="|Hos|11|8|11|9" passage="Ho 11:8,9">ver. 8, 9</scripRef>. V. Promises of what God
would yet do for them, <scripRef id="Hos.xii-p1.5" osisRef="Bible:Hos.11.10-Hos.11.11" parsed="|Hos|11|10|11|11" passage="Ho 11:10,11">ver. 10,
11</scripRef>. VI. An honourable character given of Judah,
<scripRef id="Hos.xii-p1.6" osisRef="Bible:Hos.11.12" parsed="|Hos|11|12|0|0" passage="Ho 11:12">ver. 12</scripRef>.</p>
<scripCom id="Hos.xii-p1.7" osisRef="Bible:Hos.11" parsed="|Hos|11|0|0|0" passage="Ho 11" type="Commentary"/>
<scripCom id="Hos.xii-p1.8" osisRef="Bible:Hos.11.1-Hos.11.7" parsed="|Hos|11|1|11|7" passage="Ho 11:1-7" type="Commentary"/><div class="Commentary" id="Hos.xii-p1.9">
<h4 id="Hos.xii-p1.10">God's Goodness to Israel; The Ingratitude of
Israel; God's Displeasure with Israel. (<span class="smallcaps" id="Hos.xii-p1.11">b.
c.</span> 730.)</h4>
<p class="passage" id="Hos.xii-p2" shownumber="no">1 When Israel <i>was</i> a child, then I loved
him, and called my son out of Egypt.   2 <i>As</i> they called
them, so they went from them: they sacrificed unto Baalim, and
burned incense to graven images.   3 I taught Ephraim also to
go, taking them by their arms; but they knew not that I healed
them.   4 I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love:
and I was to them as they that take off the yoke on their jaws, and
I laid meat unto them.   5 He shall not return into the land
of Egypt, but the Assyrian shall be his king, because they refused
to return.   6 And the sword shall abide on his cities, and
shall consume his branches, and devour <i>them,</i> because of
their own counsels.   7 And my people are bent to backsliding
from me: though they called them to the most High, none at all
would exalt <i>him.</i></p>
<p class="indent" id="Hos.xii-p3" shownumber="no">Here we find,</p>
<p class="indent" id="Hos.xii-p4" shownumber="no">I. God very gracious to Israel. They were a
people for whom he had done more than for any people under heaven,
and to whom he had given more, which they are here, I will not say
upbraided with (for God gives, and upbraids not), but put in mind
of, as an aggravation of their sin and an encouragement to
repentance. 1. He had a kindness for them when they were young
(<scripRef id="Hos.xii-p4.1" osisRef="Bible:Hos.11.1" parsed="|Hos|11|1|0|0" passage="Ho 11:1"><i>v.</i> 1</scripRef>): <i>When
Israel was a child then I loved him;</i> when they first began to
multiply into a nation in Egypt God then <i>set his love upon
them,</i> and <i>chose them because he loved them,</i> because he
would love them, <scripRef id="Hos.xii-p4.2" osisRef="Bible:Deut.7.7-Deut.7.8" parsed="|Deut|7|7|7|8" passage="De 7:7,8">Deut. vii. 7,
8</scripRef>. When they were weak and helpless as children, foolish
and froward as children, when they were outcasts, and children
exposed, then God <i>loved them;</i> he pitied them, and testified
his goodwill to them; he bore them as the nurse does the sucking
child, nourished them, and suffered their manners. Note, Those that
have grown up, nay, those that have grown old, ought often to
reflect upon the goodness of God to them in their childhood. 2. He
delivered them out of the house of bondage: <i>I called my son out
of Egypt,</i> because a son, because a beloved son. When God
demanded Israel's discharge from Pharaoh he called them <i>his
son,</i> his <i>first-born.</i> Note, Those whom God loves he calls
out of the bondage of sin and Satan into the glorious liberty of
his children. These words are said to have been fulfilled in
Christ, when, upon the death of Herod, he and his parents were
<i>called out of Egypt</i> (<scripRef id="Hos.xii-p4.3" osisRef="Bible:Matt.2.15" parsed="|Matt|2|15|0|0" passage="Mt 2:15">Matt. ii.
15</scripRef>), so that the words have a double aspect, speaking
historically of the calling of Israel out of Egypt and
prophetically of the bringing of Christ thence; and the former was
a type of the latter, and a pledge and earnest of the many and
great favours God had in reserve for that people, especially the
sending of his Son into the world, and the bringing him again into
the land of Israel when they had unkindly driven him out, and he
might justly never have returned. The calling of Christ out of
Egypt was a figure of the calling of all that are his, through him,
out of spiritual slavery. 3. He gave them a good education, took
care of them, took pains with them, not only as a father or tutor,
but, such is the condescension of divine grace, as a mother or
nurse (<scripRef id="Hos.xii-p4.4" osisRef="Bible:Hos.11.3" parsed="|Hos|11|3|0|0" passage="Ho 11:3"><i>v.</i> 3</scripRef>): <i>I
taught Ephraim also to go,</i> as a child in leading-strings is
taught. When they were in the wilderness God led them by the pillar
of cloud and fire, showed them the way in which they should go, and
bore them up, <i>taking them by the arms. He taught them to go</i>
in the way of his commandments, by the institutions of the
ceremonial law, which were as tutors and governors to that people
under age. He took them by the arms, to guide them, that they might
not stray, and to hold them up, that they might not stumble and
fall. God's spiritual Israel are thus supported. <i>Thou has holden
me by my right hand,</i> <scripRef id="Hos.xii-p4.5" osisRef="Bible:Ps.73.23" parsed="|Ps|73|23|0|0" passage="Ps 73:23">Ps. lxxiii.
23</scripRef>. 4. When any thing was amiss with them, or they were
ever so little out of order, he was their physician: "<i>I healed
them;</i> I not only took a tender care of them (a friend may do
that), but wrought an effectual cure: it is a God only that can do
that. <i>I am the Lord that healeth thee</i> (<scripRef id="Hos.xii-p4.6" osisRef="Bible:Exod.15.26" parsed="|Exod|15|26|0|0" passage="Ex 15:26">Exod. xv. 26</scripRef>), that redresseth all thy
grievances." 5. He brought them into his service by mild and gentle
methods (<scripRef id="Hos.xii-p4.7" osisRef="Bible:Hos.11.4" parsed="|Hos|11|4|0|0" passage="Ho 11:4"><i>v.</i> 4</scripRef>): <i>I
drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love.</i> Note, It is
God's work to draw poor souls to himself; and none can come to him
except he draw them, <scripRef id="Hos.xii-p4.8" osisRef="Bible:John.6.44" parsed="|John|6|44|0|0" passage="Joh 6:44">John vi.
44</scripRef>. He draws, (1.) <i>With the cords of a man,</i> with
such cords as men draw with that have a principle of humanity, or
such cords as men are drawn with; he dealt with them <i>as men,</i>
in an equitable rational way, in an easy gentle way, <i>with the
cords of Adam.</i> He dealt with them as with Adam in innocency,
bringing them at once into a paradise, and into covenant with
himself. (2.) <i>With bands of love,</i> or <i>cartropes</i> of
love. This word signifies stronger cords than the former. He did
not drive them by force into his service, whether they would or no,
nor rule them with rigour, nor detain them by violence, but his
attractives were all loving and endearing, all sweet and gentle,
that he might overcome them with kindness. Moses, whom he made
their guide, was the meekest man in the world. <i>Kindnesses</i>
among men we commonly call <i>obligations,</i> or <i>bonds,</i>
bonds of love. Thus God <i>draws with the savour of his good
ointments</i> (<scripRef id="Hos.xii-p4.9" osisRef="Bible:Song.1.4" parsed="|Song|1|4|0|0" passage="So 1:4">Cant. i. 4</scripRef>),
draws <i>with lovingkindness,</i> <scripRef id="Hos.xii-p4.10" osisRef="Bible:Jer.31.3" parsed="|Jer|31|3|0|0" passage="Jer 31:3">Jer.
xxxi. 3</scripRef>. Thus God deals with us, and we must deal in
like manner with those that are under our instruction and
government, deal rationally and mildly with them. 6. He eased them
of the burdens they had been long groaning under: <i>I was to them
as those that take off the yoke on their jaws,</i> alluding to the
care of the good husbandman, who is merciful to his beast, and will
not tire him with hard and constant labour. Probably, in those
times, the yoke on the neck of the oxen was fastened with some
bridle, or headstall, over the jaws, which <i>muzzled the mouth of
the ox.</i> Israel in Egypt were thus restrained from the
enjoyments of their comforts and constrained to hard labour; but
God eased them, <i>removed their shoulder from the burden,</i>
<scripRef id="Hos.xii-p4.11" osisRef="Bible:Ps.81.6" parsed="|Ps|81|6|0|0" passage="Ps 81:6">Ps. lxxxi. 6</scripRef>. Note, Liberty
is a great mercy, especially out of bondage. 7. He supplied them
with food convenient. In Egypt they fared hard, but, when God
brought them out, he <i>laid meat unto them,</i> as the husbandman,
when he has unyoked his cattle, fodders them. God rained manna
about their camp, bread from heaven, angels' food; other creatures
<i>seek their meat,</i> but God laid meat to his own people, as we
do to our children, was himself their caterer and carver,
anticipated <i>them with the blessings of goodness.</i></p>
<p class="indent" id="Hos.xii-p5" shownumber="no">II. Here is Israel very ungrateful to
God.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Hos.xii-p6" shownumber="no">1. They were deaf and disobedient to his
voice. He spoke to them by his messengers, Moses and his other
prophets, called them from their sins, called them to himself, to
their work and duty; but <i>as they called them so they went from
them;</i> they rebelled in those particular instances wherein they
were admonished; the more pressing and importunate the prophets
were with them, to persuade them to that which was good, the more
refractory they were, and the more resolute in their evil ways,
disobeying for disobedience-sake. This foolishness is bound in the
hearts of children, who, as soon as they are taught to go, will go
from those that call them.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Hos.xii-p7" shownumber="no">2. They were fond of idols, and worshipped
them: They <i>sacrificed to Baalim,</i> first one Baal and then
another, and <i>burnt incense to graven images,</i> though they
were called to by the prophets of the Lord again and again not to
do this abominable thing which he hated. Idolatry was the sin which
from the beginning, and all along, had most easily beset them.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Hos.xii-p8" shownumber="no">3. They were regardless of God, and of his
favours to them: <i>They knew not that I healed them.</i> They
looked only at Moses and Aaron, the instruments of their relief,
and, when any thing was amiss, quarrelled with them, but looked not
through them to God who employed them. Or, When God corrected them,
and kept them under a severe discipline, they understood not that
it was for their good, and that God thereby <i>healed them,</i> and
it was necessary for the perfecting of their cure, else they would
have been better reconciled to the methods God took. Note,
Ignorance is at the bottom of ingratitude, <scripRef id="Hos.xii-p8.1" osisRef="Bible:Hos.2.8" parsed="|Hos|2|8|0|0" passage="Ho 2:8"><i>ch.</i> ii. 8</scripRef>.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Hos.xii-p9" shownumber="no">4. They were strongly inclined to apostasy.
This is the blackest article in the charge (<scripRef id="Hos.xii-p9.1" osisRef="Bible:Hos.11.7" parsed="|Hos|11|7|0|0" passage="Ho 11:7"><i>v.</i> 7</scripRef>): <i>My people are bent to
backsliding from me.</i> Every word here is aggravating. (1.) They
<i>backslide.</i> There is no hold of them, no stedfastness in
them; they seem to come forward, towards God, but they quickly
slide back again, and are as a deceitful bow. (2.) They backslide
<i>from me,</i> from God, the chief good, the fountain of life and
living waters, from their God who never turned from them, nor war
as a wilderness to them. (3.) They are <i>bent to backslide;</i>
they are ready to sin; there is in their natures a propensity to
that which is evil; at the best they hang in suspense between God
and the world, so that a little thing serves to draw them the wrong
way; they are forward to close with every temptation. It also
intimates that they are resolute in sin; their hearts are <i>fully
set in them to do evil</i> the bias is strong that way; and they
persist in their backslidings, whatever is said or done to stop
them; and yet, (4.) "They are, in profession, <i>my people.</i>
They are <i>called by my name,</i> and profess relation to me; they
are mine, whom I have done much for and expect much from, whom I
have <i>nourished</i> and <i>brought up, as children,</i> and yet
they backslide <i>from me.</i>" Note, In our repentance we ought to
lament not only our backslidings, but our <i>bent to backslide,</i>
not only our actual transgressions, but our original corruption,
the sin that dwells in us, the carnal mind.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Hos.xii-p10" shownumber="no">5. They were strangely averse to repentance
and reformation. Here are two expressions of their obstinacy:—
(1.) <i>They refused to return,</i> <scripRef id="Hos.xii-p10.1" osisRef="Bible:Hos.11.5" parsed="|Hos|11|5|0|0" passage="Ho 11:5"><i>v.</i> 5</scripRef>. So much were they bent to
backslide that, though they could not but find, upon trial, the
folly of their backslidings, and that when they forsook God they
changed for the worse, yet they went on frowardly. <i>I have loved
strangers, and after them I will go.</i> They were commanded to
return, were courted and entreated to return, were promised that if
they would they should be kindly received, but they refused. (2.)
Though <i>they called them to the Most High.</i> God's prophets and
ministers called them to return to the God from whom they had
revolted, to the most high God, from whom they had sunk into this
wretched degeneracy; they called them from the worship of the
idols, which were so much below them, and the worship of which was
therefore their disparagement, to the true God, who was so much
above them, and the worship of whom was therefore their preferment;
they called them from this earth to high and heavenly things; but
they called in vain. <i>None at all would exalt him.</i> Though he
is the most high God they would not acknowledge him to be so, would
do nothing to honour him nor give him the glory due to his name.
Or, They would not <i>exalt themselves,</i> would not rise out of
that state of apostasy and misery into which they had precipitated
themselves; but there they contentedly lay still, would not lift up
their heads nor lift up their souls. Note, God's faithful ministers
have taken a great deal of pains, to no purpose, with backsliding
children, have called them to the Most High; but none would stir,
<i>none at all would exalt him.</i></p>
<p class="indent" id="Hos.xii-p11" shownumber="no">III. Here is God very angry, and justly so,
with Israel; see what are the tokens of God's displeasure with
which they are here threatened. 1. God, who brought them out of
Egypt, to take them for a people to himself, since they would not
be faithful to him, shall bring them into a worse condition than he
at first found them in (<scripRef id="Hos.xii-p11.1" osisRef="Bible:Hos.11.5" parsed="|Hos|11|5|0|0" passage="Ho 11:5"><i>v.</i>
5</scripRef>): "<i>He shall not return into the land of Egypt,</i>
though that was a house of bondage grievous enough; but he shall go
into a harder service, for <i>the Assyrian shall be his king,</i>
who will use him worse than ever Pharaoh did." They shall not
return into Egypt, which lies near, where they may hear often from
their own country, and whence they may hope shortly to return to it
again; but they shall be carried into Assyria, which lies much more
remote, and where they shall be cut off from all correspondence
with their own land and from all hopes of returning to it, and
justly, because <i>they refused to return.</i> Note, Those that
will not return to the duties they have left cannot expect to
return to the comforts they have lost. 2. God, who gave them
Canaan, that good land, and a very safe and comfortable settlement
in it, shall bring his judgments upon them there, which shall make
their habitation unsafe and uncomfortable (<scripRef id="Hos.xii-p11.2" osisRef="Bible:Hos.11.6" parsed="|Hos|11|6|0|0" passage="Ho 11:6"><i>v.</i> 6</scripRef>): <i>The sword</i> shall come upon
them, the sword of war, the sword of a foreign enemy, prevailing
against them and triumphing over them. (1.) This judgment shall
spread far. The sword shall fasten upon their <i>cities,</i> those
nests of people and store-houses of wealth; it shall likewise reach
to their <i>branches,</i> the country villages (so some), the
citizens themselves (so others), or the <i>bars</i> (so the word
signifies) and gates of their city, or all the branches of their
revenue and wealth, or their children, the branches of their
families. (2.) It shall last long: It shall <i>abide on their
cities.</i> David thought <i>three months</i> flying before his
enemies was the only judgment of the three that was to be excepted
against; but this <i>sword</i> shall abide much longer than three
months on the cities of Israel. They continued their rebellions
against God, and therefore God continued his judgments on them.
(3.) It shall <i>make a full end:</i> It shall <i>consume their
branches, and devour them,</i> and lay all waste, and this
<i>because of their own counsels,</i> that is, because they would
have their own projects, which God therefore, in a way of righteous
judgment, gave them up to. Note, The confusion of sinners is owing
to their contrivance. God's counsels would have saved them, but
their own counsels ruined them.</p>
</div><scripCom id="Hos.xii-p11.3" osisRef="Bible:Hos.11.8-Hos.11.12" parsed="|Hos|11|8|11|12" passage="Ho 11:8-12" type="Commentary"/><div class="Commentary" id="Hos.xii-p11.4">
<h4 id="Hos.xii-p11.5">The Divine Forbearance. (<span class="smallcaps" id="Hos.xii-p11.6">b. c.</span> 730.)</h4>
<p class="passage" id="Hos.xii-p12" shownumber="no">8 How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? <i>how</i>
shall I deliver thee, Israel? how shall I make thee as Admah?
<i>how</i> shall I set thee as Zeboim? mine heart is turned within
me, my repentings are kindled together.   9 I will not execute
the fierceness of mine anger, I will not return to destroy Ephraim:
for I <i>am</i> God, and not man; the Holy One in the midst of
thee: and I will not enter into the city.   10 They shall walk
after the <span class="smallcaps" id="Hos.xii-p12.1">Lord</span>: he shall roar like a
lion: when he shall roar, then the children shall tremble from the
west.   11 They shall tremble as a bird out of Egypt, and as a
dove out of the land of Assyria: and I will place them in their
houses, saith the <span class="smallcaps" id="Hos.xii-p12.2">Lord</span>.   12
Ephraim compasseth me about with lies, and the house of Israel with
deceit: but Judah yet ruleth with God, and is faithful with the
saints.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Hos.xii-p13" shownumber="no">In these verses we have,</p>
<p class="indent" id="Hos.xii-p14" shownumber="no">I. God's wonderful backwardness to destroy
Israel (<scripRef id="Hos.xii-p14.1" osisRef="Bible:Hos.11.8-Hos.11.9" parsed="|Hos|11|8|11|9" passage="Ho 11:8,9"><i>v.</i> 8, 9</scripRef>):
<i>How shall I give thee up?</i> Here observe,</p>
<p class="indent" id="Hos.xii-p15" shownumber="no">1. God's gracious debate within himself
concerning Israel's case, a debate between justice and mercy, in
which victory plainly inclines to mercy's side. Be astonished, O
heavens! at this, and wonder, O earth! at the glory of God's
goodness. Not that there are any such struggles in God as there are
in us, or that he is ever fluctuating or unresolved; no, he is in
one mind, and knows it; but they are expressions after the manner
of men, designed to show what severity the sin of Israel had
deserved, and yet how divine grace would be glorified in sparing
them notwithstanding. The connexion of this with what goes before
is very surprising; it was said of Israel (<scripRef id="Hos.xii-p15.1" osisRef="Bible:Hos.11.7" parsed="|Hos|11|7|0|0" passage="Ho 11:7"><i>v.</i> 7</scripRef>) that they were <i>bent to
backslide from God,</i> that though they were called to him they
<i>would not exalt him,</i> upon which, one would think, it should
have followed, "Now I am determined to destroy them, and never show
them mercy any more." No, such is the sovereignty of mercy, such
the freeness, the fulness, of divine grace, that it follows
immediately, <i>How shall I give thee up?</i> See here, (1.) The
proposals that justice makes concerning Israel, the suggestion of
which is here implied. Let Ephraim be given up, as an incorrigible
son is given up to be disinherited, as an incurable patient is
given over by his physician. Let him be given up to ruin. Let
Israel be delivered into the enemy's hand, as a lamb to the lion to
be torn in pieces; let them be made as Admah and set as Zeboim, the
two cities that with Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed by fire and
brimstone rained from heaven upon them; let them be utterly and
irreparably ruined, and be made as like these cities in desolation
as they have been in sin. Let that curse which is written in the
law be executed upon them, that the <i>whole land</i> shall be
<i>brimstone and salt, like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah,
Admah and Zeboim,</i> <scripRef id="Hos.xii-p15.2" osisRef="Bible:Deut.29.23" parsed="|Deut|29|23|0|0" passage="De 29:23">Deut. xxix.
23</scripRef>. Ephraim and Israel deserve to be thus abandoned, and
God will do them no wrong if he deal thus with them. (2.) The
opposition that mercy makes to these proposals: <i>How shall I do
it?</i> As the tender father reasons with himself, "How can I cast
off my untoward son? for he is my son, though he be untoward; how
can I find in my heart to do it?" Thus, "Ephraim has been a dear
son, a pleasant child: <i>How can I do it?</i> He is ripe for ruin;
judgments stand ready to seize him; there wants nothing but
<i>giving him up,</i> but I cannot do it. They have been a people
near unto me; there are yet some good among them; theirs are the
children of the covenant; if they be ruined, the enemy will
triumph; it may be they will yet repent and reform; and therefore
how can I do it?" Note, The God of heaven is slow to anger, and is
especially loth to abandon a people to utter ruin that have been in
special relation to him. See how mercy works upon the mention of
those severe proceedings: <i>My heart is turned within me,</i> as
we say, Our heart fails us, when we come to do a thing that is
against the grain with us. God speaks as if he were conscious to
himself of a strange striving of affections in compassion to
Israel: as <scripRef id="Hos.xii-p15.3" osisRef="Bible:Lam.1.20" parsed="|Lam|1|20|0|0" passage="La 1:20">Lam. i. 20</scripRef>, <i>My
bowels are troubled; my heart is turned within me.</i> As it
follows here, <i>My repentings are kindled together.</i> His bowels
yearned towards them, and <i>his soul was grieved</i> for their sin
and <i>misery,</i> <scripRef id="Hos.xii-p15.4" osisRef="Bible:Judg.10.16" parsed="|Judg|10|16|0|0" passage="Jdg 10:16">Judg. x.
16</scripRef>. Compare <scripRef id="Hos.xii-p15.5" osisRef="Bible:Jer.31.20" parsed="|Jer|31|20|0|0" passage="Jer 31:20">Jer. xxxi.
20</scripRef>. <i>Since I spoke against him my bowels are troubled
for him.</i> When God was to give up his Son to be a sacrifice for
sin, and a Saviour for sinners, he did not say, How shall I give
him up? No, he <i>spared not his own Son;</i> it <i>pleased the
Lord to bruise him;</i> and <i>therefore</i> God spared not him,
that he might spare us. But this is only the language of the day of
his patience; when men have sinned that away, and the great day of
his wrath comes, then no difficulty is made of it; nay, <i>I will
laugh at their calamity.</i></p>
<p class="indent" id="Hos.xii-p16" shownumber="no">2. His gracious determination of this
debate. After a long contest mercy in the issue rejoices against
judgment, has the last word, and carries the day, <scripRef id="Hos.xii-p16.1" osisRef="Bible:Hos.11.9" parsed="|Hos|11|9|0|0" passage="Ho 11:9"><i>v.</i> 9</scripRef>. It is decreed that the
reprieve shall be lengthened out yet longer, and <i>I will not</i>
now <i>execute the fierceness of my anger,</i> though I am angry;
though they shall not go altogether unpunished, yet he will
mitigate the sentence and abate the rigour of it. He will show
himself to be justly angry, but not implacably so; they shall be
corrected, but not consumed. <i>I will not return to destroy
Ephraim;</i> the judgments that have been inflicted shall not be
repeated, shall not go so deep as they have deserved. He will not
<i>return to destroy,</i> as soldiers, when they have pillaged a
town once, return a second time, to take more, as when <i>what the
palmer-worm has left the locust has eaten.</i> It is added, in the
close of the <scripRef id="Hos.xii-p16.2" osisRef="Bible:Hos.11.9" parsed="|Hos|11|9|0|0" passage="Ho 11:9">verse</scripRef>, "<i>I
will not enter into the city,</i> into Samaria, or any other of
their cities; I will not enter into them as an enemy, utterly to
destroy them, and lay them waste, as I did the cities of Admah and
Zeboim."</p>
<p class="indent" id="Hos.xii-p17" shownumber="no">3. The ground and reason of this
determination: <i>For I am God and not man, the Holy One of
Israel.</i> To encourage them, to hope that they shall find mercy,
consider, (1.) What he is in himself: <i>He is God, and not
man,</i> as in other things, so in pardoning sin and sparing
sinners. If they had offended a man like themselves, he would not,
he could not have borne it; his passion would have overpowered his
compassion, and he would have executed the fierceness of his anger;
but <i>I am God, and not man.</i> He is <i>Lord of his anger,</i>
whereas men's anger commonly lords it over them. If an earthly
prince were in such a strait between justice and mercy, he would be
at a loss how to compromise the matter between them; but he who is
God, and not man, knows how to find out an expedient to secure the
honour of his justice and yet advance the honour of his mercy.
Man's compassions are nothing in comparison with the tender mercies
of our God, whose thoughts and ways, in receiving returning
sinners, are as much above ours as heaven is above the earth,
<scripRef id="Hos.xii-p17.1" osisRef="Bible:Isa.55.9" parsed="|Isa|55|9|0|0" passage="Isa 55:9">Isa. lv. 9</scripRef>. Note, It is a
great encouragement to our hope in God's mercies to remember that
he is <i>God, and not man.</i> He is <i>the Holy One.</i> One would
think this were a reason why he should reject such a provoking
people. No; God knows how to spare and pardon poor sinners, not
only without any reproach to his holiness, but very much to the
honour of it, as he is <i>faithful and just to forgive us our
sins,</i> and therein <i>declares his righteousness,</i> now Christ
has purchased the pardon and he has promised it. (2.) What he is to
them; he is the <i>Holy One in the midst of thee;</i> his holiness
is engaged for the good of his church, and even in this corrupt and
degenerate land and age there were some that gave thanks at the
remembrance of his holiness, and he required of them all to be
<i>holy as he is,</i> <scripRef id="Hos.xii-p17.2" osisRef="Bible:Lev.19.2" parsed="|Lev|19|2|0|0" passage="Le 19:2">Lev. xix.
2</scripRef>. As long as we have the <i>Holy One in the midst of
us</i> we are safe and well; but woe to us when he leaves us! Note,
Those who submit to the influence may take the comfort of God's
holiness.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Hos.xii-p18" shownumber="no">II. Here is his wonderful forwardness to do
good for Israel, which appears in this, that he will qualify them
to receive the good he designs for them (<scripRef id="Hos.xii-p18.1" osisRef="Bible:Hos.11.10-Hos.11.11" parsed="|Hos|11|10|11|11" passage="Ho 11:10,11"><i>v.</i> 10, 11</scripRef>): <i>They shall walk
after the Lord.</i> This respects the same favour with that
(<scripRef id="Hos.xii-p18.2" osisRef="Bible:Hos.3.5" parsed="|Hos|3|5|0|0" passage="Ho 3:5"><i>ch.</i> iii. 5</scripRef>), <i>They
shall return, and seek the Lord their God;</i> it is spoken of the
ten tribes, and had its accomplishment, in part, in the return of
some of them with those of the two tribes in Ezra's time; but it
had its more full accomplishment in God's spiritual Israel, the
gospel-church, brought together and incorporated by the gospel of
Christ. The ancient Jews referred it to the time of the Messiah;
the learned Dr. Pocock looks upon it as a prophecy of Christ's
coming to preach the gospel to the dispersed children of Israel,
the children of God that were scattered abroad. And then observe,
1. How they were to be called and brought together: <i>The Lord
shall roar like a lion.</i> The <i>word of the Lord</i> (so says
the Chaldee) <i>shall be as a lion that roars.</i> Christ is called
<i>the lion of the tribe of Judah,</i> and his gospel, in the
beginning of it, was <i>the voice of one crying in the
wilderness.</i> When Christ cried with a loud voice it was as
<i>when a lion roared,</i> <scripRef id="Hos.xii-p18.3" osisRef="Bible:Rev.10.3" parsed="|Rev|10|3|0|0" passage="Re 10:3">Rev. x.
3</scripRef>. The voice of the gospel was heard afar, as the
<i>roaring of a lion,</i> and it was a <i>mighty voice.</i> See
<scripRef id="Hos.xii-p18.4" osisRef="Bible:Joel.3.16" parsed="|Joel|3|16|0|0" passage="Joe 3:16">Joel iii. 16</scripRef>. 2. What
impression this call should make upon them, such an impression as
the roaring of a lion makes upon all the beasts of the forest:
<i>When he shall roar then the children shall tremble.</i> See
<scripRef id="Hos.xii-p18.5" osisRef="Bible:Amos.3.8" parsed="|Amos|3|8|0|0" passage="Am 3:8">Amos iii. 8</scripRef>, <i>The lion has
roared; the Lord</i> God <i>has spoken;</i> and then <i>who will
not fear?</i> When those whose hearts the gospel reached trembled,
and were astonished, and cried out, <i>What shall we do?</i>—when
they were by it put upon working out their salvation, and
worshipping God with fear and trembling, then this promise was
fulfilled. <i>The children shall tremble from the west.</i> The
dispersed Jews were carried eastward, to Assyria and Babylon, and
those that returned came from the east; therefore this seems to
have reference to the calling of the Gentiles that lay westward
from Canaan, for that way especially the gospel spread. They shall
<i>tremble;</i> they shall move and come with trembling, with care
and haste, <i>from the west,</i> from the nations that lay that
way, to the mountain of the Lord (<scripRef id="Hos.xii-p18.6" osisRef="Bible:Isa.2.3" parsed="|Isa|2|3|0|0" passage="Isa 2:3">Isa.
ii. 3</scripRef>), to the gospel-Jerusalem, upon hearing the alarm
of the gospel. The apostle speaks of <i>mighty signs and
wonders</i> that were wrought by the preaching of the gospel from
<i>Jerusalem round about to Illyricum,</i> <scripRef id="Hos.xii-p18.7" osisRef="Bible:Rom.15.19" parsed="|Rom|15|19|0|0" passage="Ro 15:19">Rom. xv. 19</scripRef>. Then the children trembled from
the west. And, whereas Israel after the flesh was dispersed in
Egypt and Assyria, it is promised that they shall be effectually
summoned thence (<scripRef id="Hos.xii-p18.8" osisRef="Bible:Hos.11.11" parsed="|Hos|11|11|0|0" passage="Ho 11:11"><i>v.</i>
11</scripRef>): <i>They shall tremble;</i> they shall come
trembling, and with all haste, <i>as a bird</i> upon the wing,
<i>out of Egypt,</i> and <i>as a dove out of the land of
Assyria;</i> a dove is noted for swift and constant flight,
especially when she flies <i>to her windows,</i> which the flocking
of Jews and Gentiles to the church is here compared to, as it is
<scripRef id="Hos.xii-p18.9" osisRef="Bible:Isa.60.8" parsed="|Isa|60|8|0|0" passage="Isa 60:8">Isa. lx. 8</scripRef>. Wherever those
are that belong to the election of grace—east, west, north, or
south—they shall <i>hear the joyful sound,</i> and be wrought upon
by it; those of Egypt and Assyria shall come together; those that
lay most remote from each other shall meet in Christ, and be
incorporated in the church. Of the uniting of Egypt and Assyria, it
was prophesied, <scripRef id="Hos.xii-p18.10" osisRef="Bible:Isa.19.23" parsed="|Isa|19|23|0|0" passage="Isa 19:23">Isa. xix.
23</scripRef>. 3. What effect these impressions should have upon
them. Being <i>moved with fear,</i> they shall flee to the ark:
<i>They shall walk after the Lord,</i> after <i>the service of the
Lord</i> (so the Chaldee); they shall take the Lord Christ for
their <i>leader and commander;</i> they shall enlist themselves
under him as the captain of their salvation, and give up themselves
to the direction of the Spirit as their guide by the word; they
shall <i>leave all</i> to <i>follow Christ,</i> as becomes
<i>disciples.</i> Note, Our holy trembling at the word of Christ
will draw us to him, not drive us from him. When he <i>roars like a
lion</i> the slaves tremble and flee from him, the children tremble
and flee to him. 4. What entertainment they shall meet with at
their return (<scripRef id="Hos.xii-p18.11" osisRef="Bible:Hos.11.11" parsed="|Hos|11|11|0|0" passage="Ho 11:11"><i>v.</i>
11</scripRef>): <i>I will place them in their houses</i> (all those
that come at the gospel-call shall have a place and a name in the
gospel-church, in the particular churches which are their houses,
to which they pertain; they shall dwell in God, and be at home in
him, both easy and safe, as a man in his own house; they shall have
mansions, for there are many in <i>our Father's house</i>), in his
tabernacle on earth and his temple in heaven, in <i>everlasting
habitations,</i> which may be called <i>their houses,</i> for they
are <i>the lot</i> they shall stand in <i>at the end of the
days.</i></p>
<p class="indent" id="Hos.xii-p19" shownumber="no">III. Here is a sad complaint of the
treachery of Ephraim and Israel, which may be an intimation that it
is not Israel after the flesh, but the spiritual Israel, to whom
the foregoing promises belong, for as for this Ephraim, this
Israel, they <i>compass God about with lies and deceit;</i> all
their services of him, when they pretended to compass his altar,
were feigned and hypocritical; when they surrounded him with their
prayers and praises, every one having a petition to present to him,
they <i>lied to him with their mouth and flattered him with their
tongue;</i> their pretensions were so fair, and yet their
intentions so foul, that they would, if possible, have imposed upon
God himself. Their professions and promises were all a cheat, and
yet with these they thought to compass God about, to enclose him as
it were, to keep him among them, and prevent his leaving them.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Hos.xii-p20" shownumber="no">IV. Here is a pleasant commendation of the
integrity of the two tribes, which they held fast, and this comes
in as an aggravation of the perfidiousness of the ten tribes, and a
reason why God had that mercy in store for Judah which he had not
for Israel (<scripRef id="Hos.xii-p20.1" osisRef="Bible:Hos.1.6-Hos.1.7" parsed="|Hos|1|6|1|7" passage="Ho 1:6,7"><i>ch.</i> i. 6,
7</scripRef>), for <i>Judah yet rules with God and is faithful with
the saints,</i> or <i>with the Most Holy.</i> 1. <i>Judah rules
with God,</i> that is, he serves God, and the service of God is not
only true liberty and freedom, but it is dignity and dominion.
<i>Judah rules,</i> that is, the princes and governors of Judah
<i>rule with God;</i> they use their power for him, for his honour,
and the support of his interest. Those <i>rule with God</i> that
<i>rule in the fear of God</i> (<scripRef id="Hos.xii-p20.2" osisRef="Bible:2Sam.23.3" parsed="|2Sam|23|3|0|0" passage="2Sa 23:3">2 Sam.
xxiii. 3</scripRef>), and it is their honour to do so, and their
praise shall be <i>of God,</i> as Judah's here is. Judah is
<i>Israel—a prince with God.</i> 2. He is <i>faithful with the
holy God,</i> keeps close to his worship and <i>to his saints,</i>
with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, whose steps they faithfully tread
in. They <i>walk in the way of good men;</i> and those that do so
<i>rule with God,</i> they have a mighty interest in Heaven. Judah
<i>yet</i> does thus, which intimates that the time would come when
Judah also would revolt and degenerate. Note, When we see how many
there are that compass God about <i>with lies and deceit</i> it may
be a comfort to us to think that God has his remnant that cleave to
him with purpose of heart, and are faithful to his saints; and for
those who are thus faithful unto death is reserved a crown of life,
when hypocrites and all liars shall have their portion without.</p>
</div></div2>