1Israel, return to Yahweh your God; for you have fallen because of your sin.
2Take words with you, and return to Yahweh. Tell him, “Forgive all our sins, and accept that which is good: so we offer our lips like bulls.
3Assyria can’t save us. We won’t ride on horses; neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, ‘Our gods!’ for in you the fatherless finds mercy.”
1 Israel, return to Yahweh your God; for you have fallen because of your sin.
2 Take words with you, and return to Yahweh. Tell him, “Forgive all our sins, and accept that which is good: so we offer our lips like bulls.
3 Assyria can’t save us. We won’t ride on horses; neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, ‘Our gods!’ for in you the fatherless finds mercy.”
KJVKing James Version
1 O Israel, return unto the LORD thy God; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity.
2 Take with you words, and turn to the LORD: say unto him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously: so will we render the calves of our lips.
3 Asshur shall not save us; we will not ride upon horses: neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, Ye are our gods: for in thee the fatherless findeth mercy.
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JPSJPS Tanakh (1917)
1 (14-2) Return, O Israel, unto the LORD thy God; for thou hast stumbled in thine iniquity.
2 (14-3) Take with you words, and return unto the LORD; say unto Him: 'Forgive all iniquity, and accept that which is good; so will we render for bullocks the offering of our lips.
3 (14-4) Asshur shall not save us; we will not ride upon horses; neither will we call any more the work of our hands our gods; for in Thee the fatherless findeth mercy.'
Hosea 6:1(v1)“Come! Let’s return to Yahweh; for he has torn us to pieces, and he will heal us; he has injured us, and he will bind up our wounds.
Joel 2:12-13(v1)“Yet even now,” says Yahweh, “turn to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning.” Tear your heart, and…
Hosea 12:6(v1)Therefore turn to your God. Keep kindness and justice, and wait continually for your God.
Psalms 51:2-10(v2)Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity. Cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions. My sin is constantly before me. Against you, and…
Hebrews 13:15(v2)Through him, then, let’s offer up a sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of lips which proclaim allegiance to his…
Show all 76 cross-references
2 Chronicles 30:6-9(v1)So the couriers went with the letters from the king and his princes throughout all Israel and Judah, and according to the commandment of…
Job 34:31-32(v2)“For has any said to God, ‘I am guilty, but I will not offend any more. Teach me that which I don’t see. If I have done iniquity, I will do…
Job 7:21(v2)Why do you not pardon my disobedience, and take away my iniquity? For now will I lie down in the dust. You will seek me diligently, but I…
Micah 7:18-19(v2)Who is a God like you, who pardons iniquity, and passes over the disobedience of the remnant of his heritage? He doesn’t retain his anger…
Zechariah 1:3-4(v1)Therefore tell them: Yahweh of Armies says: ‘Return to me,’ says Yahweh of Armies, ‘and I will return to you,’ says Yahweh of Armies. Don’t…
Psalms 10:14(v3)But you do see trouble and grief. You consider it to take it into your hand. You help the victim and the fatherless.
Psalms 68:5(v3)A father of the fatherless, and a defender of the widows, is God in his holy habitation.
Psalms 69:30-31(v2)I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify him with thanksgiving. It will please Yahweh better than an ox, or a bull that…
Isaiah 55:6-7(v1)Seek Yahweh while he may be found. Call on him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let…
Jeremiah 4:1(v1)“If you will return, Israel,” says Yahweh, “if you will return to me, and if you will put away your abominations out of my sight; then you…
Acts 26:18-20(v1)to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive remission of sins…
1 John 3:5(v2)You know that he was revealed to take away our sins, and no sin is in him.
2 Samuel 12:13(v2)David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against Yahweh.” Nathan said to David, “Yahweh also has put away your sin. You will not die.
Joel 2:17(v2)Let the priests, the ministers of Yahweh, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, “Spare your people, Yahweh, and don’t…
2 Samuel 24:10(v2)David’s heart struck him after he had counted the people. David said to Yahweh, “I have sinned greatly in that which I have done. But now,…
Ezekiel 36:25-26(v2)I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your filthiness, and from all your idols. I will…
Hosea 13:9(v1)You are destroyed, Israel, because you are against me, against your help.
Zechariah 3:4(v2)He answered and spoke to those who stood before him, saying, “Take the filthy garments off him.” To him he said, “Behold, I have caused…
Luke 18:13(v2)But the tax collector, standing far away, wouldn’t even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a…
Ephesians 2:7-8(v2)that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus; for by grace you have been…
2 Timothy 1:9(v2)who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given to…
Hebrews 10:4(v2)For it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins.
1 Peter 2:5(v2)You also, as living stones, are built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God…
Psalms 33:17(v3)A horse is a vain thing for safety, neither does he deliver any by his great power.
Isaiah 6:7(v2)He touched my mouth with it, and said, “Behold, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away, and your sin forgiven.”
Isaiah 30:16(v3)but you said, “No, for we will flee on horses;” therefore you will flee; and, “We will ride on the swift;” therefore those who pursue you…
Isaiah 31:1(v3)Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, and rely on horses, and trust in chariots because they are many, and in horsemen because they…
Jeremiah 3:12-14(v1)Go, and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, ‘Return, you backsliding Israel,’ says Yahweh; ‘I will not look in anger on you;…
Hosea 2:17(v3)For I will take away the names of the Baals out of her mouth, and they will no longer be mentioned by name.
Hosea 5:13(v3)“When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah his wound, Then Ephraim went to Assyria, and sent to king Jareb: but he is not able to heal you,…
Hosea 14:8(v3)Ephraim, what have I to do any more with idols? I answer, and will take care of him. I am like a green cypress tree; from me your fruit is…
Matthew 6:9-13(v2)Pray like this: ‘Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy. Let your Kingdom come. Let your will be done on earth as it is in…
Matthew 7:11(v2)If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to…
Luke 11:2-4(v2)He said to them, “When you pray, say, ‘Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy. May your Kingdom come. May your will be done on…
Luke 11:13(v2)If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to…
Luke 15:21-24(v2)The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ “But the father…
John 1:29(v2)The next day, he saw Jesus coming to him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!
John 14:18(v3)I will not leave you orphans. I will come to you.
Romans 11:27(v2)This is my covenant with them, when I will take away their sins.”
Ephesians 1:6-7(v2)to the praise of the glory of his grace, by which he freely gave us favor in the Beloved, in whom we have our redemption through his blood,…
1 Peter 2:9(v2)But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, that you may proclaim the excellence of…
Lamentations 5:16(v1)The crown has fallen from our head. Woe to us, for we have sinned!
Ezekiel 28:14-16(v1)You were the anointed cherub who covers. Then I set you up on the holy mountain of God. You have walked up and down in the middle of the…
Titus 2:14(v2)who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify for himself a people for his own possession, zealous for…
1 John 1:7(v2)But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanses…
Exodus 22:22-24(v3)“You shall not take advantage of any widow or fatherless child. If you take advantage of them at all, and they cry at all to me, I will…
Deuteronomy 17:16(v3)Only he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt, to the end that he may multiply horses; because…
1 Samuel 7:3-4(v1)Samuel spoke to all the house of Israel, saying, “If you are returning to Yahweh with all your heart, then put away the foreign gods and…
2 Chronicles 16:7(v3)At that time Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah, and said to him, “Because you have relied on the king of Syria, and have not relied…
Psalms 20:7-8(v3)Some trust in chariots, and some in horses, but we trust in the name of Yahweh our God. They are bowed down and fallen, but we rise up, and…
Psalms 146:3(v3)Don’t put your trust in princes, in a son of man in whom there is no help.
Psalms 146:9(v3)Yahweh preserves the foreigners. He upholds the fatherless and widow, but he turns the way of the wicked upside down.
Proverbs 23:10-11(v3)Don’t move the ancient boundary stone. Don’t encroach on the fields of the fatherless, for their Defender is strong. He will plead their…
Isaiah 1:29(v3)For they shall be ashamed of the oaks which you have desired, and you shall be confounded for the gardens that you have chosen.
Isaiah 2:20(v3)In that day, men shall cast away their idols of silver and their idols of gold, which have been made for themselves to worship, to the…
Isaiah 27:9(v3)Therefore by this the iniquity of Jacob will be forgiven, and this is all the fruit of taking away his sin: that he makes all the stones of…
Isaiah 30:2(v3)who set out to go down into Egypt, and have not asked my advice, to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to take refuge in…
Isaiah 31:3(v3)Now the Egyptians are men, and not God; and their horses flesh, and not spirit. When Yahweh stretches out his hand, both he who helps shall…
Isaiah 36:8(v3)Now therefore, please make a pledge to my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part…
Jeremiah 2:19(v1)“Your own wickedness will correct you, and your backsliding will rebuke you. Know therefore and see that it is an evil and bitter thing,…
Jeremiah 31:18-22(v3)“I have surely heard Ephraim grieving thus, ‘You have chastised me, and I was chastised, as an untrained calf. Turn me, and I will be…
Ezekiel 36:25(v3)I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your filthiness, and from all your idols.
Ezekiel 37:23(v3)They won’t defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions; but I will…
Ezekiel 43:7-9(v3)He said to me, “Son of man, this is the place of my throne, and the place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell among the children of…
Hosea 5:5(v1)The pride of Israel testifies to his face. Therefore Israel and Ephraim will stumble in their iniquity. Judah also will stumble with them.
Hosea 7:11(v3)“Ephraim is like an easily deceived dove, without understanding. They call to Egypt. They go to Assyria.
Hosea 8:6(v3)For this is even from Israel! The workman made it, and it is no God; indeed, the calf of Samaria shall be broken in pieces.
Hosea 8:9(v3)For they have gone up to Assyria, like a wild donkey wandering alone. Ephraim has hired lovers for himself.
Hosea 12:1(v3)Ephraim feeds on wind, and chases the east wind. He continually multiplies lies and desolation. They make a covenant with Assyria, and oil…
Micah 5:10-14(v3)“It will happen in that day”, says Yahweh, “that I will cut off your horses out from among you, and will destroy your chariots. I will cut…
Zechariah 13:2(v3)It will come to pass in that day, says Yahweh of Armies, that I will cut off the names of the idols out of the land, and they will be…
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (27 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
John Calvin1540 · Public DomainOn vv1–3Here the Prophet exhorts the Israelites to repentance, and…
Here the Prophet exhorts the Israelites to repentance, and still propounds some hope of mercy. But this may seem inconsistent as he had already testified that there would be no remedy any more, because they had extremely provoked God. The Prophet seems in this case to contradict himself. But the solution is ready at hand, and it is this, — In speaking before of the final destruction of the people, he had respect to the whole body of the people; but now he directs his discourse to the few, who had as yet remained faithful. And this distinction, as we have reminded you in other places, ought to be carefully noticed; otherwise we shall find ourselves perplexed in many parts of Scripture. We now then see for what purpose the Prophet annexed this exhortation, after having asserted that God would be implacable to the people of Israel; for with regard to the whole body, there was no hope of deliverance; God had now indeed determined to destroy them, and he wished this to be made known to them by the preaching of Hosea. But yet God had ever some seed remaining among his chosen people: though the body, as a whole, was putrid and corrupt; yet some sound members remained, as in a large heap of chaff some grains may be found concealed. As God then had preserved some (as he is wont always to do,) he sets forth to them his mercy: and as they had been carried away, as it were by a tempest, when iniquity so prevailed among the people, that there was nothing sound, the Prophet addresses them here, because they were not wholly incurable.
Let us then know that the irreclaimable, the whole body of the people, are now dismissed; for they were so obstinate that the Prophet could address them with no prospect of success. Then his sermon here ought to be especially applied to the elect of God, who, having fallen away for a time, and become entangled in the common vices of the age, were yet not altogether incurable. The Prophet now exhorts them and says Return, Israel, to Jehovah thy God; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity This reason is added, because men will never repent unless they are made humble; and whence comes true and genuine humility, except from a sense of sin? Unless then men become displeased with themselves, and acknowledge that they are worthy of perdition, they will never be touched by a genuine feeling of penitence. These two things are then wisely joined together by Hosea, that Israel had fallen by their iniquities, and then, that it was time to return to Jehovah. How so? Because, when we are convinced that we are worthy of destruction, nays that we are already doomed to death for having so often provoked God, then we begin to hate ourselves; and a detestation of sin drives us to seek repentance.
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But he says, Turn thou, Israel, to thy God The Prophet now kindly invites them; for he could not succeed by severe words without mingling a hope of favour, as we know that there can be no hope of repentance without faith. Then the Prophet not only shows what was necessary to be done, but says also, ‘Thou art Israel, thou art an elect people.’ He does not, however, as it has been already stated, address all indiscriminately, but those who were the true children of Abraham, though they had for a time degenerated. “Turn thou, Israel, then to thy God; for how much soever thou hast for a time fallen away, yet God has not rejected thee: only return to him, and thou shalt find favour, for he is placable to his own people.”
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators1599 · Public DomainOn vv2–3He exhorteth them to repentance to avoid all these…
He exhorteth them to repentance to avoid all these plagues, willing them to declare by words their obedience and repentance.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp1656 · Public DomainOn vv1–3Hos 14:1 O Israel, return unto the LORD thy…
Hos 14:1 O Israel, return unto the LORD thy God; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity.
Ver. 1. O Israel, return unto the Lord] Usque ad Dominum, all the way to God, as far as to the Lord: give not the half, but the whole turn; and take it for a mercy that you are yet called upon to return, and may be received; "that yet there is hope in Israel concerning this thing," Ezr 10:2. All the former part of the prophecy had been mostly denunciations; this last chapter is wholly consolatory; the Sun of Righteousness loves not to set in a cloud.
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Return unto the Lord thy God] He is yet thy God: no such argument for our turning to God as his turning to us, Zec 1:3. See the note there. Tantum velis et Deus tibi praeoccurret. If ye be willing and obedient ye shall eat, &c. The father’s plenty brought home the prodigal; he had but a purpose to return, and his father met him, Isa 65:24. See Joe 2:12-13 Isa 55:6-7 Jer 31:18 Hos 3:5 Act 2:38. This is the use we should make of mercy. Say not, He is my God, therefore I may presume upon him; but, he is mine, therefore I must return unto him. Argue from mercy to duty, and not to liberty, for that is the devil’s logic, which the apostle holds unreasonable, yea, to a good heart impossible, Rom 6:1-2. His mercy is bounded with his truth, with which it therefore goes commonly coupled in Scripture. It is a sanctuary for the penitent, but not for the presumptuous.
For thou hast fallen by thine iniquity] i.e. "Consumption is decreed, yet a remnant reserved," Isa 10:22-23. Thou hast fallen into great calamity, and that by thine iniquity, which puts a sting into thy misery. This it is fit thou shouldst be sensible of; for conviction is the first step to conversion. But if thou art fallen, wilt thou there lie and not rise again by repentance, and return to him that smiteth thee? wilt thou not submit to his justice, and implore his mercy? Here, then, is another motive to conversion; as indeed this verse abounds with arguments to that purpose, Pareus well observeth. First, thou art a prince of God, who hath greatly graced thee above all people: return to him therefore. 2. Thou hast run away from him by thine iniquity; and turned upon him the back, and not the face: return therefore. 3. He is the author of thy being and well-being. 4. He is God, to whom thou must either turn or burn for ever: aut poenitendum, aut pereundum; he can fetch in his rebels. 5. He is thy God in covenant with thee, and will accept of pence for pounds, desires for deeds, sincerity for perfection. 6. Thou hast fallen by thine iniquity; and yet wilt fall farther, and never rise again, as Amo 8:14, if thou stop not, step not back by repentance, and stir up thyself to take hold of God.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole1685 · Public DomainOn vv1–3O Israel, you that are the true Israel of…
O Israel, you that are the true Israel of God, you that are the remnant amidst so great a body of incurable rebels, return; repent ye thoroughly, not hypocritically, turn ye from all your sins in which with others you have been defiled, and turn to
the Lord, the everlasting, living God, who is worthy to be worshipped and obeyed; your idols were never worth your love, but the Lord, the Fountain of being and life, is worthy of it. Turn to him as
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thy God, in covenant with thee, to get pardon for past sins according to covenant promise, to renew covenant for time to come, and to engage thyself sincerely and heartily to be his people.
For thou hast fallen; thy sins against the Lord thy God have enkindled his wrath against thee, have involved thee in endless troubles, have turned thy prosperity into extreme adversity; sin hath cast thee from the height of glory to the depth of reproach and contempt, thus thou art fallen.
By thine iniquity: it is the singular number, either because all their sins were so linked together they were as one huge mass of sin, or it refers particularly to their idolatry, which is by way of eminency, and above any one other sin a falling from God, and here punished with a fall into calamities.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry1710 · Public DomainOn v1Here we have,
Here we have,
I. A kind invitation given to sinners to repent, Hos 14:1. It is directed to Israel, God's professing people. They are called to return. Note, Conversion must be preached even to those that are within the pale of the church as well as to heathen. "Thou are Israel, and therefore art bound to thy God in duty, gratitude, and interest; thy revolt from him is so much the more heinous, and thy return to him so much the more necessary." Let Israel see, 1. What work he has made for repentance: "Thou has fallen by thy iniquity." Thou has stumbled; so some read it. Their idols were their stumbling-blocks. "Thou has fallen from God into sin, fallen off from all good, fallen down under the load of guilt and the curse." Note, Sin is a fall; and it concerns those that have fallen by sin to get up again by repentance. 2. What work he has to do in his repentance: "Return to the Lord thy God; return to him as the Lord whom thou has a dependence upon, as thy God, thine in covenant, whom thou has an interest in." Note, It is the great concern of those that have revolted from God to return to God, and so to do their first works. "Return to him from whom thou has fallen, and who alone is able to raise thee up. Return even to the Lord, or quite home to the Lord; do not only look to him, or take some steps towards him, but make thorough work of it." The ancient Jews had a saying grounded on this, Repentance is a great thing, for it brings men quite up to the throne of glory.
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II. Necessary instructions given them how to repent. 1. They must bethink themselves what to say to God when they come to him: Take with you words. They are required to bring, not sacrifices and offerings, but penitential prayers and supplications, the fruit of thy lips, yet not of the lips only, but of the heart, else words are but wind. One of the rabbin says, They must be such words as proceed from what is spoken first in the inner man; the heart must dictate to the tongue. We must take good words with us, by taking good thoughts and good affections with us. Verbaque praevisam rem non invita sequentur - Those who master a subject are seldom at a loss for language. Note, When we come to God we should consider what we have to say to him; for, if we come without an errand, we are likely to go without an answer. Ezr 9:10, What shall we say? We must take with us words from the scripture, take them from the Spirit of grace and supplication, who teaches us to cry, Abba, Father, and makes intercession in us. 2. They must bethink themselves what to do. They must not only take with them words, but must turn to the Lord; inwardly in their hearts, outwardly in their lives.
III. For their assistance herein, and encouragement, God is pleased to put words into their mouths, to teach them what they shall say. Surely we may hope to speed with God, when he himself has ordered our address to be drawn up ready to our hands, and his own Spirit has indited it for us; and no doubt we shall speed if the workings of our souls agree with the words here recommended to us. They are,
1. Petitioning words. Two things we are here directed to petition for: - (1.) To be acquitted from guilt. When we return to the Lord we must say to him, Lord, take away all iniquity. They were now smarting for sin, under the load of affliction, but are taught to pray, not as Pharaoh, Take away this death, but, Take away this sin. Note, When we are in affliction we should be more concerned for the forgiveness of our sins than for the removal of our trouble. "Take away iniquity, lift it off as a burden we are ready to sink under or as the stumbling-block which we have often fallen over. Lord, take it away, that it may not appear against us, to our confusion and condemnation. Take it all away by a free and full remission, for we cannot pretend to strike any of it off by a satisfaction of our own." When God pardons sin he pardons all, that great debt; and when we pray against sin we must pray against it all and not except any. (2.) To be accepted as righteous in God's sight: "Receive us graciously. Let us have thy favour and love, and have thou respect to us and to our performances. Receive our prayer graciously; be well pleased with that good which by thy grace we are enabled to do." Take good (so the word is); take it to bestow upon us, so the margin reads it - Give good. This follows upon the petition for the taking away of iniquity; for, till iniquity is taken away, we have no reason to expect any good from God, but the taking away of iniquity makes way for the conferring of good removendo prohibens - by taking that out of the way which hindered. Give good; they do not say what good, but refer themselves to God; it is not good of the world's showing (Psa 4:6), but good of God's giving. "Give good, that good which we have forfeited, and which thou has promised, and which the necessity of our case calls for." Note, God's gracious acceptance, and the blessed fruits and tokens of that acceptance, are to be earnestly desired and prayed for by us in our returning to God. "Give good, that good which will make us good and keep us from returning to iniquity again."
2. Promising words. These also are put into their mouths, not to move God, or to oblige him to show them mercy, but to move themselves, and oblige themselves to returns of duty. Note, Our prayers for pardon and acceptance with God should be always accompanied with sincere purposes and vows of new obedience. Two things they are to promise and vow: - (1.) Thanksgiving. "Pardon our sins, and accept of us, so will we render the calves of our lips." The fruit of our lips (so the Septuagint), a word they used for burnt-offerings, and so it agrees with the Hebrew. The apostle quotes this phrase (Heb 13:15), and by the fruit of our lips understands the sacrifice of praise to God, giving thanks to his name. Note, Praise and thanksgiving are our spiritual sacrifice, and, if they come from an upright heart, shall please the Lord better than an ox or bullock, Psa 69:30, Psa 69:32. And the sense of our pardon and acceptance with God will enlarge our hearts in praise and thankfulness. Those that are received graciously may, and must, render the calves of their lips - poor returns for rich receivings, yet, if sincere, more acceptable than the calves of the stall. (2.) Amendment of life. They are taught to promise, not only verbal acknowledgements, but a real reformation. And we are taught here, [1.] In our returns to God to covenant against sin. We cannot expect that God should take it away by forgiving it if we do not put it away by forsaking it. [2.] To be particular in our covenants and resolutions against sin, as we ought to be in our confession, because deceit lies in generals. [3.] To covenant especially and expressly against those sins which we have been most subject to, which have most easily beset us, and which we have been most frequently overcome by. We must keep ourselves from, and therefore must thus fortify ourselves against, our own iniquity, Psa 18:23. The sin they here covenant against, owning thereby that they had been guilty of it, is giving that glory to another which is due to God only; this they promise they will never do, First, By putting that confidence in creatures which should be put in God only. They will not trust to their alliances abroad: Asshur (that is, Assyria) shall not save us. "We will not court the help of the Assyrians when we are in distress, as we have done (Hos 5:13; Hos 7:11; Hos 8:9); we will not contract for it, nor will we confide in it, or depend upon it. Having a God to go to, a God all-sufficient to trust to, we scorn to be beholden to the Assyrians for help." They will not trust to their warlike preparations at home, especially not those which they were forbidden to multiply: "We will not ride upon horses, that is, we will not make court to Egypt," for thence they fetched their horses, Deu 17:16; Isa 30:16; Isa 31:1, Isa 31:3. "When our enemies invade us we will depend upon our God to succour our infantry, and will be in no care to remount our cavalry." Or, "We will not post on horseback, for haste, from one creature to another, to seek relief, but will take the nearest way, and the only sure way, by addressing ourselves to God," Isa 20:5. Note, True repentance takes us off from trusting to an arm of flesh, and brings us to rely on God only for all the good we stand in need of. Secondly, Nor will they do it by paying that homage to creatures which is due to God only. We will not say any more to the works of our hands, You are our gods. They must promise never to worship idols again, and for a good reason, because it is the most absurd and senseless thing in the world to pray to that as a god which is the work of our hands. We must promise that we will not set our hearts upon the gains of this world, nor pride ourselves in our external performances in religion, for that is, in effect, to say to the work of our hands, You are our gods.
3. Pleading words are here put into their mouths: For in thee the fatherless find mercy. We must take our encouragement in prayer, not from any merit God finds in us, but purely from the mercy we hope to find in God. This contains in itself a great truth, that God takes special care of fatherless children, Psa 68:4, Psa 68:5. So he did in his law, Exo 22:22. So he does in his providence, Psa 27:10. It is God's prerogative to help the helpless. In him there is mercy for such, for they are proper objects of mercy. In him they find it; there it is laid up for them, and there they must seek it; seek and you shall find. It comes in here as a good plea for mercy and grace and an encouraging one to their faith. (1.) They plead the distress of their state and condition: "We are fatherless orphans, destitute of help." Those may expect to find help in God that are truly sensible of their helplessness in themselves and are willing to acknowledge it. This is a good step towards comfort. "If we have not yet boldness to call God Father, yet we look upon ourselves as fatherless without him, and therefore lay ourselves at his feet, to be looked upon by him with compassion." (2.) They plead God's wonted lovingkindness to such as were in that condition: With thee the fatherless not only may find, but does find, and shall find, mercy. It is a great encouragement to our faith and hope, in returning to God, that it is his glory to father the fatherless and help the helpless.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill1763 · Public DomainOn vv1–3O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God,.... From…
O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God,.... From whom they had revolted and backslidden; whose worship and service they had forsaken, and whose word and ordinances they had slighted and neglected, and had served idols, and had given into idolatry, superstition, and will worship; and are here exhorted to turn again to the Lord by repentance and reformation, to abandon their idols, and every false way, and cleave to the Lord with full purpose of heart; and the rather, since he was their God; not only their Creator, Preserver, and kind Benefactor, but their God, by his special choice of them above all people; by his covenant with them; by his redemption of them; and by their profession of him; and who was still their God, and ready to receive them, upon their return to him: and a thorough return is here meant, a returning "even unto" (w), or quite up to the Lord thy God; it is not a going to him halfway, but a going quite up to his seat; falling down before him, acknowledging sin and backslidings, and having hold upon him by faith as their God, Redeemer, and Saviour: hence, from the way of speaking here used, the Jews (x) have a saying, as Kimchi observes,
"great is repentance, for it brings a man to the throne of glory;''
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the imperative may be here used for the future, as some take it; and then it is a prediction of the conversion of Israel, "thou shalt return, O Israel" (y); and which was in part fulfilled in the first times of the Gospel, which met with many of the Israelites dispersed among the Gentiles, and was the means of their conversion; and will have a greater accomplishment when all Israel shall be converted and saved:
for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity; or "though thou art fallen" (z); into sin, and by it into ruin, temporal and spiritual; from a state of great prosperity and happiness, both in things civil and religious, into great adversity, and calamities of every sort; yet return, repent, consider from whence thou art fallen, and by what; or thou shall return, be recovered and restored, notwithstanding thy fall, and the low estate in which thou art. The Targum is,
"return to the fear of the Lord.''
(w) "asque ad Dominum", Montanus, Tigurine version, Oecolampadius, Schmidt, Burkius. (x) T. Bab. Yoma, fol. 86. 1. (y) "revertere", i. e. "reverteris", Schmidt. (z) "etsi corruisti", Luther apud Tarnovium.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley1765 · Public DomainOn vv1–3Directions how to repent, ver. 1-3. Encouragements to repent,…
Directions how to repent, ver. 1-3. Encouragements to repent, ver. 4-9.
Fallen - Thy sins have involved thee in endless troubles.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke1810 · Public DomainOn vv1–2By the terrible denunciation of vengeance which concludes the
CHAPTER XIV
By the terrible denunciation of vengeance which concludes the
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preceding chapter, the prophet is led to exhort Israel to
repentance, furnishing them with a beautiful form of prayer,
very suitable to the occasion, 1-3.
Upon which God, ever ready to pardon the penitent, is
introduced making large promises of blessings, in allusion to
those copious dews which refresh the green herbs, and which
frequently denote, not only temporal salvation, but also the
rich and refreshing comforts of the Gospel, 4-7.
Their reformation from idolatry is foretold, and their
consequent prosperity, under the emblem of a green flourishing
fir tree, 8;
but these promises are confined to those who may bring forth
the fruits of righteousness, and the wicked are declared to
have no share in them, 9.
NOTES ON CHAP. XIV
Verse 1. O Israel, return unto the Lord] These words may be considered as addressed to the people now in captivity; suffering much, but having still much more to suffer if they did not repent. But it seems all these evils might yet be prevented, though so positively predicted, if the people would repent and return; and the very exhortation to this repentance shows that they still had power to repent, and that God was ready to save them and avert all these evils. All this is easily accounted for on the doctrine of the contingency of events, i.e., the poising a multitude of events on the possibility of being and not being, and leaving the will of man to turn the scale; and that God will not foreknow a thing as absolutely certain, which his will has determined to make contingent. A doctrine against which some solemn men have blasphemed, and philosophic infidels declaimed; but without which fate and dire necessity must be the universal governors, prayer be a useless meddling, and Providence nothing but the ineluctable adamantine chain of unchangeable events; all virtue is vice, and vice virtue, or there is no distinction between them, each being eternally determined and unalterably fixed by a sovereign and uncontrollable will and unvarying necessity, from the operation of which no soul of man can escape, and no occurrence in the universe be otherwise than it is. From such blasphemy, and from the monthly publications which avouch it, good Lord, deliver us!
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson1811 · Public DomainOn vv1, 3Hos 14:1-2. O Israel, return unto the Lord thy…
Hos 14:1-2. O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God — O Israel, return now at length, after thou hast suffered so many evils, to the Lord by true repentance and reformation of conduct. The whole family of Israel, in both its branches, seems to be here addressed. For thou hast fallen — From God’s love and favour into his displeasure, and consequently into misery, by thine iniquity — Which has involved thee in endless troubles, and will be the cause of thy destruction. Take with you words — Make your confessions, present your petitions, and signify your promises and resolutions unto God, not only in your thoughts, but also by words well chosen and digested; sanctioned by the Holy Scriptures, and agreeable to the will of God. The prophet here prescribes a form of confession, petition, and supplication very proper to be used upon their repentance and conversion. It implies in substance, Confess your sins, entreat for pardon, and promise amendment. And turn to the Lord — In heart and life, in faith, love, and new obedience, otherwise your confessions and prayers will be to little purpose. Say, Take away all iniquity, &c. — Deliver us from the guilt and power of our sins, internal and external; take entirely away the sinful principle within us, the carnal heart of the old Adam. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me; and receive us graciously — Accept our persons and performances of thy mere grace and favour, thy unmerited mercy and love. But this clause may be rendered, Give us what is good; that is, bestow thy grace and blessing upon us: or, accept the good; that is, when we are begotten again unto holiness by thy Spirit, accept, as good, what we, thus regenerated, shall be enabled to perform. So will we render the calves of our lips — That is, the sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving uttered by our lips. By calling vocal devotions calves, (or bullocks, as Bishop Horsley renders the word פרים,) “is shown, that this form of supplication is prepared for those times, when animal sacrifices will be abolished, and prayer and thanksgiving will be the only offering.”
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes1834 · Public DomainOn vv1–3O Israel, return - (now, quite) unto the Lord…
O Israel, return - (now, quite) unto the Lord your God The heavy and scarcely interrupted tide of denunciation is now past. Billow upon billow have rolled over Ephraim and the last wave discharged itself in the overwhelming, indiscriminating destruction of the seat of its strength. As a nation, it was to cease to be. its separate existence was a curse, not a blessing; the offspring of rivalry, matured by apostasy; the parent, in its turn, of jealousy, hatred, and mutual vexation.
But while the kingdom was past and gone, the children still remained heirs of the promises made to their fathers. As then, before, Hosea declared that Israel, after having long remained solitary, should in the end “seek the Lord and David their king” Hos 3:5, so now, after these manifold denunciations of their temporal destruction, God not only invites them to repentance, but foretells that they should be wholly converted.
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Every word is full of mercy. God calls them by the name of acceptance, which he had given to their forefather, Jacob; “O Israel.” He deigns to beseech them to return; “return now;” and that not “toward” but “quite up to” Himself, the unchangeable God, whose mercies and promises were as immutable as His Being. To Himself, the Unchangeable, God invites them to return; trod that, as being still their God. They had cast off their God; God had “not cast off His people whom He foreknew” Rom 11:2.
: “He entreats them not only to turn back and look toward the Lord with a partial and imperfect repentance, but not to leave off until they were come quite home to Him by a total and sincere repentance and amendment.” He bids them “return quite to” Himself, the Unchangeable God, and their God. “Great is repentance,” is a Jewish saying , “which maketh men to reach quite up to the Throne of glory.”
For thou hast fallen by thine iniquity - “This is the first ray of divine light on the sinner. God begins by discovering to him the abyss into which he has fallen,” and the way by which he fell. Their own iniquity it was, on which they had stumbled and so had fallen, powerless to rise, except through “His” call, whose “voice is with power” Psa 29:4, and “Who giveth what He commandeth.” : “Ascribe not thy calamity,” He would say, “to thine own weakness, to civil dissension, to the disuse of miltary discipline, to want of wisdom in thy rulers, to the ambition and cruelty of the enemy, to reverse of fortune. These things had not gone against thee, hadst not thou gone to war with the law of thy God. Thou inflictest the deadly wound on thyself; thou destroyedst thyself. Not as fools vaunt, by fate, or fortune of war, but ‘by thine iniquity hast thou fallen.’ Thy remedy then is in thine own hand. ‘Return to thy God. ‘“
: “In these words, ‘by thine iniquity,” he briefly conveys, that each is to ascribe to himself the iniquity of all sin, of whatsoever he has been guilty, not defending himself, as Adam did, in whom we all, Jews and Gentiles, have sinned and fallen, as the Apostle says, ‘For we were by nature the children of wrath, even as others’ Eph 2:3. By adding actual, to that original, sin, Israel and every other nation falleth. He would say then, O Israel, be thou first converted, for thou hast need of conversion; ‘for thou hast fallen;” and confess this very thing, that ‘thou hast fallen by thine iniquity;’ for such confession is the beginning of conversion.”
But wherewith should he return?
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary1859 · Public DomainOn vv1, 3Perish, because she hath stirred up her God to…
Perish, because she hath stirred up her God to bitterness. It is not a curse or imprecation, but a prophecy of what should come to pass (Challoner) to Israel, in Assyria. Many such expressions occur, Psalm lxviii. 25., &c. (St. Jerome) --- Sometimes they are the efforts of zeal, conformable to divine justice, Psalm cxl. 6. (Worthington) --- Hebrew, "Samaria has sinned, or shall perish." (Calmet) --- Bitterness. Septuagint, "she hath resisted her God." (Haydock)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures1864 · Public DomainOn v13. Exhortation to Return: Promise of Complete Redemption.
3. Exhortation to Return: Promise of Complete Redemption.
Hosea 14
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1 Samaria will suffer punishment,1
Because she rebelled against her God;
They shall fall by the sword,
Their sucklings shall be dashed to pieces,
Their pregnant women2 shall be cut open.
2 Return, O Israel, to Jehovah, thy God,
For thou hast fallen through thy transgression.
3 Take with you words
And return to the Lord and say unto Him:
“Forgive all (our) iniquity3 and receive (what is) good [acceptable],
And we shall render unto thee our lips (as) oxen [as our sacrifices].
4 Assyria shall not help us, We will not ride upon horses,
We will no more say: our God, to the work of our hands,
(O Thou) in whom the orphan finds pity:”
5 I will heal their backsliding;
I will love them readily,4
For my anger is turned away from them.
6 I will be as the dew to Israel:
He shall bloom as the lily,
And shall strike his roots like Lebanon!5
7 His shoots shall go forth,
And his glory shall be like the olive,
And his fragrance like Lebanon!
8 Those that dwell under his shade shall revive [produce] corn once more.
And shall bloom as the vine,
His renown (shall be) like the wine of Lebanon.
9 O Ephraim, what have I to do any longer with idols?
I answer and regard [watch over] him.
I am like a green cypress;
With me is thy fruit found.
10 Who is wise, that he may understand these things?
Discerning, that he may know them?
For the ways of the Lord are direct,
And the righteous walk in them;
But transgressors stumble thereon.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Hos_14:1. Samaria shall make expiation, etc, תֶּאְשַׁם, from אָשָׁםַ, to make atonement, to suffer punishment. [Rendered in E. V.: shall be desolate, comp. the remarks in the Text. and Gram. Section.—M.] It is unnecessary to join this verse to Hosea 13, although it is naturally connected with it. The foregoing threatenings converge here first into the prophecy “concerning the destruction of Samaria because of its apostasy from its God,” and then upon this groundwork is based the exhortation to return, and the promise of renewed mercy conditioned upon repentance. [Henderson] “For the concluding portion of the verse, comp. 2Ki_8:12; 2Ki_15:16; Amo_1:13. That such cruelties were not unknown among other nations, see Iliad, 6:58, and Horace, Carm. 4 Od. 6.”—M.]
Hos_14:2. עַד יְהוָֹה, even unto Jehovah [literally: until, as far as, unto Jehovah.—M.]
Hos_14:3. Take with you words: They are not to come to Jehovah empty, but at the same time need take nothing more than words, no outward gifts. The words they are to use are now named, וְקַח טוֹב: and accept good, namely, what now follows: the sacrifices of the lips. [The true idea of the phrase seems to be: receive what is good, pleasing, acceptable. For this sense of טוב, comp. Num_24:1; Deu_6:18. I find the meaning of the passage admirably expressed by Ewald: “The people must first return to God’s love. The Prophet does not merely exhort them to this course; he shows them also in what manner it should be made; how and in what spirit the penitent are again to draw near to God’s favor; namely, not with outward, even though imposing sacrifices, with bulls, e.g., but with words, with the lips, i.e., with the living promises of the spirit that struggles after mercy and offers what is good.” The English expositors have, for the most part, followed the rendering of E. V.: and receive us graciously. Horsley (who is strangely opposed by Henderson “on the ground of philolgy”) and Pusey recognize and adopt the natural and true construction.—M.] Literally: and we will render as bullocks our lips, i.e., we will offer to thee for our sins the confession of our guilt and the promise of our return instead of sacrificial oxen (comp. Psa_51:17-19; Psa_69:31 f.; Psa_116:17; Psa_141:2).
Hos_14:4 follows immediately with such a vow, no longer to rely upon Assyria, no longer upon warlike power (horses) generally, no longer to serve idols, אֲשֶׁר בְּךָ: Thou, through whom, etc. Reliance upon God’s compassion is that upon which the whole prayer of penitence is based.
Hos_14:5. The promise of mercy follows as an answer to such a prayer of penitence. Heal their apostasy = the calamities which it has entailed. נְדָבָה [spontaneously] expresses God’s perfect readiness to bestow such love.
Hos_14:6 ff. The effects of this love of the Lord are rich blessings upon Israel: Jehovah Himself will become to Israel like a refreshing dew, and the consequences of this would be that they should bloom and strike root and send forth branches, or that they should flourish and develop a vigorous life. Like Lebanon, not simply like the cedars, but like the mountain itself, rooted as deeply and firmly. Like the olive [Hos_14:7] with its evergreen leaves and rich fruitage. His fragrance like Lebanon with its cedars and aromatic shrubs.
Hos_14:8. Here from Israel as a whole, compared to a tree, are distinguished the members of the people, as those who flourish vigorously beneath the shadow of the tree. יָשׁוּבוּ is to be joined with יְחַיּוּ in an adverbial sense=again. The latter word=live again, become fruitful. They themselves shall even become like a vine, producing wine as precious as that of Lebanon. O Ephraim! what have I still to do with idols? = I will have nothing more to do with idols, i.e., “I have now no longer to plead with thee on account of idols, as during the whole course of this prophecy Jehovah’s claims to honor as against idols have formed the predominant theme. This is all done away upon the ground on which this promise rests, that Israel has returned to the Lord” (Schmieder). I have answered and will regard him (Ephraim)=will concern myself, care for him. God lastly compares Himself to a green cypress. In Him the people are to find their fruit, i.e., the fruit which shall nourish them. [The English expositors, generally, adopt the rendering of the E. V., chiefly because the words of the first line do not seem to them suitable as uttered by God. But if they are held to assert that God would not have anything more to do with idols, would not come any longer into competition with idols for the affections of the people and so be brought into connection with them, they are seen to be suitable, and just what would be expected at the close of this book. And it would be altogether unnatural to introduce Ephraim as uttering this single exclamation in the midst of an extended passage in which God is the speaker. Finally, it is a most arbitrary principle which would require the insertion of the supplied words, or of any other, in a sentence in which the sense would be complete without an ellipsis. Manger carries such an unwarranted license to an extreme when he supposes that the whole verse forms a sort of dialogue, thus:—
Ephraim: What have I more to do with idols?
God: I have answered him and will regard him.
Ephraim: I am like a green cypress.
God: From me is thy Fruit found.
Upon this it is obvious to remark, that if the verse is a dialogue, and it were necessary to indicate who the speaker is in his first utterance, it would be just as necessary to give a similar intimation at the beginning of his next response.—M.]
Hos_14:9. Who is wise, etc. An epilogue to the whole Prophetic Book. אֵלֶּה refers to all that precedes, to the chidings and threatenings concerning sin and idolatry. For right are the ways of the Lord. This the crowning declaration, comp. Deu_32:4. The ways which God is said to follow are straight, i.e., direct, leading to the object. The righteous walk upon them, and are thereby righteous. But transgressors stumble thereon, i.e., they deviate from them, and are thereby transgressors, and at the same time the consequences of such deviation are recorded: they fall into ruin.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. It is clearly manifest here that the severe judgments announced as impending upon the kingdom of Israel have not their object in themselves, but are only means to an end. The kingdom in its present form must assuredly be destroyed, for it is utterly corrupt. But this is not to be done because God has turned Himself away from his people or desired to do so, or because his love for them is extinguished, but only because it is the only means of making room for something new, for the regeneration of his people.
2. Repentance, a return to God who had been forsaken, is to be the fruit of these judgments (comp. Hos_2:18-19), because it was their only design to lead to repentance, to make its necessity clear to the hearts of the people, and to prepare them for it through the severity of the wrath of God which they experienced, through their condition as “orphans” (Hos_14:4). The essential element of such a return was the prayer for forgiveness of guilt, involving both confession of and sorrow for sin, and in connection therewith the vow of a change of life. Rieger: “When the sinner resolves to return unto the Lord, the Spirit of Grace makes his soul willing. I said, I will confess my transgression to the Lord. O how good it is if only the sullen silence is broken and he begins to speak with God from a heart freed from deceit. The highest instance of the honor which he can give to God in sincerely returning to Him, is to reject all help in men which he had sought before, and all creaturely consolation, to sanctify God the Lord in his heart, and to seek mercy like a helpless orphan, as our Lord Jesus has shown us that we are all orphans, teaching us to seek our Father in Heaven, like orphans who have no father on earth.”
3. It is significant how “words” are emphasized as an expression of such repentance, and as explained by the contrast to “sacrifices,” literal offerings of animals, every external legal service. Such sacrifices are not needed; “words” are sufficient; these are the true sacrifices well pleasing to God; and yet they must be words that express a right state of mind within. (On the other hand it must be remembered that words are no guarantee of a freedom from outward lip-service.) It cannot be said with certainty from this brief remark, whether the Prophet contemplates the sacrifices as entirely done away, as in the expected time of the coming redemption. The main object is to speak of the return to God, and it is clear that he regards this as a going forth of the heart, which does not need the intervention of any sacrifice, and therefore as a prayerful and penitent approach to Him without the medium of an offering. The idea is certainly at once suggested that if mercy can be found without sacrifices, there is no need of them afterwards in the state of grace.
4. Such a return presupposes the restoration of God’s favor, which is manifested by the promise of a condition of rich blessing. On this promise a restoration into their own country is not indicated as a special element, although it is evidently assumed, as exile from their country is to be regarded as the punishment that was decreed, according to the threatenings of chaps. 9–11. The promise in our chapter presents, so to speak, the positive side, after the negative has been shown. Punishment shall not merely be taken away; blessing shall be restored to them, through which alone a return to their country is to be gained. From the fact, however, that here at the close of the Book such a return is not promised, it is to be inferred that in the picture of the future redemption which the Prophet sketches, such return is not of itself the most important element, i.e., the Prophecy looks beyond it and towards something greater connected with it, a complete manifestation of God’s favor to his people, which finds its expression in a state of rich and wondrous blessedness. This we designate the Messianic character of the prophetic promise. It is therefore clear that we are not to seek the fulfillment of this promise in premessianic time; apart from the consideration that it did not then appear. The Messiah Himself, according to the statement of the promise, did not accomplish it as consisting in the glorious bloom and vigor of the people; nor will He do so, simply because He has already brought a still higher disclosure of God’s mercy, and will yet introduce a more glorious display, in which the whole believing people of God will enjoy (outward and inward) blessedness, as the nation of Israel will no longer be the object of special favor.
5. The promise here made to the people of Israel, that of full bloom and prosperity, and vigor, through the influence of God’s grace—still chiefly in a temporal sense,—shall be fulfilled for all believers as God’s true people in a higher sense: they shall be perpetually bedewed with power from God. The favor of God is ever fresh and blooming for them, and they enjoy its fruits without intermission, as they themselves become like a living, firmly-rooted, wide-spreading, never-fading, sweet-smelling tree. All this has its beginning even now, as surely as the divine favor brought to us through Christ is a reality, but shall only find its complete perfection when the kingdom of God shall have attained its complete realization.
6. “It is the object of the Prophet Hosea and of all Prophecy, in the spirit of Hosea 14:10, to alarm and to warn the apostate, to confirm and to comfort the converted, and to glorify the Lord” (Schmieder). Only the ways of the Lord are right. Then inevitable destruction must befall him who departs from them. True wisdom is to regard them, and all the prophetic Scriptures are like an uplifted finger, which warns against any departure from them, and at the same time like an outstretched finger which points to the way upon which the righteous must walk.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
Hos_14:2-9. Franke: He who would read what is sweet and agreeable, should read the close of all the Prophets. They are like a choir of singers, one singing one part, another another; but at last they all dwell upon one note. The glory of Christ’s Church at last is the finale.
Hos_14:2. This is the key-note of all Prophecy; it always comes back to this. This warning is the most needed and the weightiest of all. All God’s judgments have this as their aim. They cry out earnestly: Return. O that we might hear! It is well to hear when God calls through his deeds; but it is better to hear his Words. “To thy God,” not to a strange God, but to One from whom so much good has been experienced, and who remains, the God of mercy and our God, even when He must punish us. Return! (I) the object: to the Lord, thy God; (2) the reason: because thou hast fallen through thy iniquity.
[Matt. Henry: Sin is a fall, and it concerns those who have fallen by sin to get up again by repentance.
Fausset: God assures us that He is the God of his people, and invites us not merely to return towards, but never to rest until we have reached even up to Himself—to be satisfied with nothing short of Himself.—M.]
Hos_14:3. Words are nothing unless they come from the depths of the heart. But when they come from thence, as did the Publican’s prayer, and David’s psalm of confession, then, though seemingly slight and less than “sacrifices,” they are in truth as great and naturally more than all merely outward offerings, since they are measured according to the disposition of the heart. All grief over sin avails nothing without the prayer for forgiveness addressed to God. Not repentance but forgiveness, gives rest and peace.
[Pusey: What other good can we offer than detestation of our past sins with burning desire of holiness?
Fausset: What so cheap as words? And yet words such as God requires are not natural to fallen man. The Spirit of God alone can teach such words. In Gospel times we have no longer burdensome literal sacrifices to offer, but we have an offering continually to render which is more acceptable to Him (Psa_69:30-31), the thanksgivings of unfeigned “lips,” sanctified through the offering of Christ once for all.—M.]
Hos_14:4. God is gracious to orphans. O that all orphaned ones might turn to God’s mercy!
[Pusey: He is indeed fatherless who hath not God for his Father.
Hos_14:5. Pusey: Steadfastness to the end is the special gift of the Gospel. In healing that disease of unsteadfastness God heals ail besides.—M.]
Hos_14:6. Starke: God alone can truly revive the heart. Let him who needs comfort and refreshing seek them in God.
Pfaff. Bibelwerk: See how believers bloom in their holiness, strike root, bring forth fruit, and diffuse fragrance all around! Art thou also such a fruitful tree displaying such vigor of spiritual life?
[Fausset: All that is beautiful, solid, harmonious, and enduring shall be found in harmonious unison in the “trees of righteousness,” etc. (Isa_61:3).
Pusey: Such reunion of qualities, being beyond nature, suggests the more, that that wherein they are all combined, the future Israel, the Church, shall flourish with graces that are beyond nature, in their manifold ness, completeness, unfadingness.—M.]
Hos_14:9. O that God could speak thus of us, finding in us no idolatry, nor needing to plead with us any longer because of our idols! What better thing could we wish than that God would regard us in mercy? In Christ this is realized. In Him he is also as an evergreen tree of life to believers; his mercy never ceases, and from its fullness they may all receive grace for grace. He is for them an evergreen tree of life, but also one whose fruit never fails, and ever nourishes.
[Matt. Henry: God will be to all true converts both a delight and a defense; under his protection and influence they shall both dwell in safety and dwell at ease. He will be either a sun and a shield, or a shade and a shield, as their case requires.
Pusey: Created beauty must at best be but a faint image of the beauty of the soul in grace; for this is from the indwelling of God the Holy Ghost.—M.]
Hosea 14:10, God’s ways are direct; we must therefore not follow roundabout or crooked courses, but go straight forward in faith and labor; a straight course makes the best runner. Righteousness brings a blessing; unfaithfulness a curse, remains the simple and infallible rule of living, attested by God’s word, and confirmed by experience.
Luther: Let us thank the merciful Father of Jesus Christ, for these greatest gifts, that He has revealed to us these direct ways, and pray that He would guide by his Holy Spirit those that walk therein, and preserve us to eternity.
[Matt. Henry: God’s discovery of Himself, both in the judgments of his mouth, and the judgments of his hand, is to us according as we are affected by it. The same sun softens wax and hardens clay. But of all transgressors, those certainly have the most dangerous fatal falls that fall in the way of God, that split on the Rock of Ages, that suck poison out of the balm in Gilead. Let sinners in Zion be afraid of this.
Pusey God reveals his ways to us not that we may know them only, but that we may do them, The life of grace is a life of progress. Every attribute or gift or revelation of God, which is full of comfort to the believer, becomes in turn an occasion of stumbling to the rebellious. With this the Prophet sums up all the teaching of the seventy years of his ministry. This is to us the end of all; this is thy choice, O Christian soul, to walk in God’s ways, or to stumble at them.—M.]
Footnotes:
[1]Hos_14:1.—תֶּאְשֵׁם. From the notion of suffering punishment is derived the signification: to be desolated, waste =שָׁמֵם. [The reverse would be the order if any connection between the verbs existed. But there is none whatever. The latter meaning in all likelihood arose from the similarity in form between the two words, the one form naturally suggesting the other. But it is not to be inferred from this that the words are cognate. The roots are not at all related, but belong to families essentially distinct. Fürst, however, holds to the affinity. But see the forms in Arabic and Ethiopic related to אשׁם, and compare the radically different notions which lie at the basis of their prevailing significations respectively.—M.]
[2]Hos_14:1.—הָרִוָּה= הָרָה. The masc. verb, with a fem. substantive is anomalous. According to Ewald it is to be explained from the fact that the fem, terminations of the plur. imperf. are but seldom employed. [The suggestion of Henderson is worthy of consideration, that the anomaly was occasioned by the form of יְרֻטָּשׁוּ immediately preceding.—M.]
[3]Hos_14:3.—כָּל־תִּשָּׂא עָוֹן. כָּל precedes for the sake of emphasis, and becomes an adverbial notion [=take away our iniquity altogether.]
[4]Hos_14:5.—נְדָבָה is an adverbial accusative [spontaneously, voluntarily, readily].
[5]Hos_14:6.—Newcome prefers to read לְבֹנָה, as more consistent with the context. But this cannot be admitted though it was the one followed by the Targum. See the exposition for the propriety of the image.—M.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown1871 · Public DomainOn vv2–3Take with you words--instead of sacrifices, namely, the words…
Take with you words--instead of sacrifices, namely, the words of penitence here put in your mouths by God. "Words," in Hebrew, mean "realities," there being the same term for "words" and "things"; so God implies, He will not accept empty professions (Psa 78:36; Isa 29:13). He does not ask costly sacrifices, but words of heartfelt penitence.
receive us graciously--literally "(for) good."
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calves of our lips--that is, instead of sacrifices of calves, which we cannot offer to Thee in exile, we present the praises of our lips. Thus the exile, wherein the temple service ceased, prepared the way for the gospel time when the types of the animal sacrifices of the Old Testament being realized in Christ's perfect sacrifice once for all, "the sacrifice of praise to God continually that is the fruit of our lips" (Heb 13:14) takes their place in the New Testament.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon1874 · Public DomainOn vv1–3Aside from the question of authorship (see Introduction, p.…
ISRAEL’S REPENTANCE — JEHOVAH’S PARDON, 1-9.
Aside from the question of authorship (see Introduction, p. 35ff.) chapter 14 presents several exegetical difficulties, especially in its latter part. Hos_14:9 stands by itself as an epilogue to the whole book. The author of this verse, who seems to look back over the fulfillment of Hosea’s oracles, expresses the thought that whosoever desires to become wise and prudent should become acquainted with the Book of Hosea. From it he may learn that Jehovah’s ways are right, and that the destinies of men are determined by their attitude toward the divine will. There is some uncertainty concerning the interpretation of Hos_14:8, but the general thought of Hos_14:1-8 is clear. The prophet exhorts Israel to return to Jehovah in humility and sorrow (Hos_14:1-2 a). He puts upon the lips of the Israelites words expressive of the deepest remorse, and of an earnest determination to remain forever loyal to Jehovah (Hos_14:2-3). To this penitent prayer Jehovah responds that he will graciously pardon, and shower upon the God-fearing people blessings hitherto unknown (Hos_14:4-8).
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1. Return — Israel was an apostate; had gone after the Baals. To enjoy again the divine favor the people must return to their own God, Jehovah, in obedience and love (compare Hos_6:1; Joe_2:12; Amo_4:6 ff.). Out of the Old Testament idea of a return to Jehovah grew the New Testament idea of conversion.
Jehovah thy God — In view of their constant tendency to run after other gods (Hos_2:5; Hos_4:12, etc.) they needed to be reminded again and again that Jehovah was their only legitimate God.
Hast fallen — Or, stumbled; they were over-taken by calamity (Hos_4:5; Hos_5:5) as a result of their sin.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges1878 · Public DomainOn vv1–31. return … for thou hast fallen] To ‘stumble’…
1. return … for thou hast fallen] To ‘stumble’ or to ‘fall’ means to be visited by a calamity (as Hos_4:3, Hos_5:5). Experience has shown the Israelites, to quote Jeremiah (Hos_2:19), ‘what an evil and bitter thing it is to forsake Jehovah their God.’
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers1878 · Public DomainOn vv1–3(1) Thy.—Tenderness and inextinguishable love are suggested by the…
XIV.
(1) Thy.—Tenderness and inextinguishable love are suggested by the use of the pronoun. “Repentance (say the Rabbis) presses right up to the Eternal Throne.”
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary1880 · Public DomainOn vv1–3The foregoing part of this book abounds with denunciations…
The foregoing part of this book abounds with denunciations of punishment; this closing chapter superabounds with promises of pardon. Wave after wave of threatened wrath had rolled over Israel and come in unto their soul; now offer after offer of grace is made to them. O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God. The invitation to return implies previous departure, or distance, or wandering from God. The return to which they are invited is expressed, not by la, to or towards, but by r, quite up to, or as far as right home; the penitent, therefore, is not merely to turn his mind or his face toward God, but to turn his face and his feet home to God; he is not to go half the way and then turn aside, or part of the way and then turn back, but the whole way; in other words, his repentance is to be complete and entire, wanting nothing, according to the state merit of the psalmist, "It is good for me to draw near to God." As punishment was threatened in case of obstinate impenitence, so mercy is promised on condition of thorough repentance. For thou hast fallen by thine iniquity. A reason is here assigned for the preceding invitation; ka-shalta is properly "thou hast stumbled," "made a false step," fallen, yet so that recovery was among future possibilities. The same thought may be included in the fact that Jehovah continues to call his erring people by the honored and honorable name of Israel, and to acknowledge himself their God. Further, many and grievous were the calamities into which by their fall they had been precipitated; neither were any to blame but themselves their iniquity or their folly was the cause, nor was there any one to lift them up, now that they lay prostrate, save Jehovah. After referring to the desolation of Samaria and the ruthless destruction of its inhabitants, as portrayed in the last verse of the previous chapter, Jerome adds, "All Israel is invited to repentance, that he who has been debilitated, or has fallen headlong in his iniquities, may return to the physician and recover health, or that he who had fallen headlong may begin to stand." The penitent is to direct his thoughts to Jehovah; to him as Center he is attracted, and in him he finds his place of rest; nor is there ether means of recovery or source of help. Thus Kimchi says, "For thou seest that through thine iniquity thou hast fallen, therefore it behooves thee to return to Jehovah, as nothing besides can raise thee from thy fall but thy return to him." "There is none," says Aben Ezra, "can raise thee from thy fall but the Eternal alone.
Vers. 1-3. The fallen invited to return.
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The history of Israel is the moral history of the world, at least in miniature.
I HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF. The history of Israel repeats itself in the history of mankind in general. Their history is the history of sin and of salvation, of ruin and of recovery, of the mercy of God and of the backsliding of man. Their bondage in Egypt represents the slavery of sin; their rescue out of the hand of the oppressor, our redemption; their sojourn in the wilderness, our strangership on earth; their entrance into Canaan, our admission into the better country, even the heavenly; their backsliding from time to time, our own wanderings of heart and life from the living God; their return to the path of obedience, our repentance.
II GOD"S READINESS TO RECEIVE THE PENITENT. The reproofs for sin and threatenings of wrath scattered over the preceding chapters of this book now give place to invitations to repentance and promises of mercy. The former were a preparation for the latter. Not only so, even interspersed with reproofs for sin we find most gracious calls to repentance; alongside the threatenings of wrath are the most precious promises. It is in this way that God wounds in order to make whole; when he convinces us of sin, his object is to comfort us; when he brings to mind our sin, it is that he may lead us to the Savior; when he proves to us our ruin by sin, he is at pains to point us to the remedy and provide for our restoration; having warned us of our danger, he urges us to the discharge of duty. He deals with us as with Israel at the time to which the prophet refers, showing us our fall and how we are to rise again; he urges us to repentance, instructing us what to do and what to say, and encouraging us withal by God"s willingness to receive us on repentance.
III MAN"S FALL AND ITS CAUSE. In the passage before us the words apply in the first instance to Israel; they had stumbled, such being the meaning of the original word. Their stumbling-blocks were their idols; they had forgotten the living and true God; they had proved ungrateful for his benefits and unmindful of his favors. Despising the riches of his goodness and forbearance, they had lapsed into gross idolatry; they had sunk deep into that degrading sin, making molten images of their silver and idols according to their own understanding, all of it the work of the craftsman. Their ingratitude for the Divine goodness made their iniquity still less excusable, for according to the multitude of his fruit they increased the altars, according to the goodness of his land he made goodly images. No wonder the Majesty of heaven was provoked with that stiffnecked and rebellious people. But the fall of Israel reminds us of the fall of man, and leads us naturally to revert to the infancy of our race.
1. Before the Fall. When we picture to ourselves, as far as the Scripture record enables us, the place of our first parents in the state of pristine innocence, we think of that lovely garden "planted eastward in Eden;" of its trees and shrubs; of its fruits and flowers; of the rivers that watered it; of its unclouded sky; of the genial warmth of the glorious sun fructifying and beautifying it; of the dews that refreshed it; of man its caretaker and cultivator of his pleasant position in that paradise, placed there as he was to dress it and to keep it. To this must be added the communion of the creature with the Creator, so close, so cordial, and so confidential as that communion then must have been. If Enoch, after sin and Satan had done their worst, still walked with God; if Abraham was called, not only the father of the faithful, but the friend of God; if God spake face to face with Moses, as a man speaketh with his friend; we may form some faint idea, and it is only a faint idea, of that heavenly communion which man there enjoyed with his Maker as he walked in the garden in the cool of the day.
2. After the Fall. We know how the scene was changed suddenly and shockingly changed. We have seen a picture designed to represent the change which sin introduced into Paradise, and the wreck which iniquity wrought. In one part of the picture all is beauty, all is loveliness; the sky is cleat", earth beneath is charming; above, below, around, everything appears inexpressibly gay and grand and gorgeous. Man is the monarch of all; every bird of every wing is subject to him, every animal of every species is submissive to his sway, even the most savage beast of prey owns his sovereignty. The lion crouches at his feet, he strokes the tiger with his hand. But no sooner has he tasted the forbidden fruit than the sky is clouded, lightning flashes with fearful fury, the elements are at war with him. The animals, lately so meek and mild, rise in rebellion against him the lion opens his mouth in wrath, the tiger is wild with fury. Our first parents themselves, shivering with horror, shuddering with fright, are hurried out of Paradise. A flaming sword prevents their return, and guards on every side the tree of life. Such is the painting referred to, and it pictures a dread reality. It points out how man fell, and how far he fell from his state of primeval bliss, of fellowship with the Holy One, and of Divine favor.
3. The cause of such a fall. Iniquity was the cause, as we here read of Israel, "Thou hast fallen by thine iniquity." In that iniquity there were various elements; when analyzed it is found to be made up of several component parts. There was the lust of the flesh, for the tree was good for food; there was the lust of the eyes, for that tree was pleasant to the eyes; there was the pride of life, it was a tree to be desired to make one wise shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." There was, in short, rebellion against the mildest authority; there was disobedience to the most reasonable command.
4. Consequences of the fall are seen in posterity. When we read the records of the ancient nations of heathendom, even the most enlightened and polished, we cannot fail to be convinced of the deep degradation into which man by iniquity had fallen. In Egypt, the cradle of civilization, men worshipped animals and plants, and even reptiles. In Greece, with all its boasted intellectual superiority, aesthetic tastes, and fine arts, men worshipped a host of false gods, deified men, and even impersonations of the lowest passions and worst vices that agitate the human heart; while of Athens itself it was said that you could as easily find a god as a man in that celebrated city in Rome men multiplied gods, for, in addition to the national divinities, they readily admitted into their pantheon the gods, however monstrous and motley, of the nations which they conquered. Among the people of Israel in the prophet"s time the great besetting sin was idolatry with all its foul accompaniments. In heathen lands at the present day it is still the same; multitudes bow down to stocks and stones, and call these vanities gods. Can anything afford clearer evidence of the fearful fall of our race than this sottish idolatry of ancient and modern heathen, as also of the Hebrew people, though so highly favored with the written Law, besides that which they had in common with their heathen neighbors? We forbear to speak of the gross impurities and shocking immoralities that go hand-in-hand with idolatry.
5. Illustration of the Fall. Of manifold illustrations which the subject admits take that of a stately tree. Its dimensions are mighty and magnificent its top waves high in air, its branches spread far around, its leafy honors are luxuriant, its foliage umbrageous; it claims or seems to claim supremacy over all the forest trees. But the axe is laid to its root. You beg the woodman to spare that tree. It is vain, however; he has made up his mind, and it is doomed to fall. Blow after blow is struck; the sturdy strokes are redoubled; at length the root is giving way, the top is nodding, the tree topples to its fall. One creak, one crash, and the goodly tree is prostrate; ruin spreads the ground. Ere long the branches wither and the leaves decay. What a contrast between that tree flourishing in the stateliness of its strength and the loveliness of its life, and that same tree felled to the earth, its leaves stripped off, its branches lopped, the whole a sad emblem of decay, a solemn memorial of destruction! Such is the contrast between man in his original purity, while standing by faith, and man at the present day fallen by iniquity.
6. Greatness of the Fall. When the great Roman dictator had usurped the liberties of his country and changed the republican form of government to the imperial; when he had overcome all opposition, conquered all enemies, and fully gained the mastery; when he had reached the summit of popularity and power; just then the daggers of the conspirators smote him to the earth. He fell at the foot of his great rival"s statue. The friend who spoke his funeral oration and improved the occasion did justly magnify that fall, exclaiming, as well he might, "What a fall was there, my countrymen!" But what, after all, is the fall of the warrior, or hero, or emperor, even from the pinnacle of his fame and of his fortune, compared with the fall of an immortal soul by sin, dragged down into the deep pit of perdition? The sight of the fallen warrior, as he sat amid the ruins of Carthage, has furnished a subject for men to moralize on, while historians have commented on the fact; and it is indeed sufficiently impressive. The harmony that existed between the person and the place was necessarily striking and even startling; the fate of the one was so like that of the other, the downfall of the one was so similar to the desolation of the other, that we scarcely know which of the two is more entitled to the tear of pity or sigh of sympathy the degradation of the chieftain or the destruction of the city. Yet greater far are the degradation and desolation which the blight of sin brings upon person or place.
7. Practical considerations. We need not travel far for proof of our fallen state; we do not need to go back to our first parents except for the purpose of tracing the evil to its fountain-head; we need not visit pagan lands, whether past or present; we do not require to quit the lands of Christendom. The condition of the Hebrew people as set forth by the Prophet Hosea is one that often repeats itself in the experiences some of them sad enough of everyday life. How many have fallen by iniquity around us! How many are falling by iniquity at our very doors, on this side and on that! How many have we known to begin life well, but they fell by iniquity! The wrecks of the fallen are strewn on the right hand and on the left. Some fall by drunkenness, some by lewdness, some by want of rectitude and right principle, some by what the world calls unsteadiness. If the sword slays its thousands, iniquity slays its tens of thousands.
8. Personal duties. Several personal duties of much importance may be learnt from this part of the subject; these may be expressed in Scripture language as follows: "Let him that standeth take heed lest he fall;" "Give diligence to make your calling and election sure; for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall;" "Beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own steadfastness." Also pity the fallen; try to lift them up; pray for the backslider who has fallen back from the position he seemed to have attained, and seek to restore such a one in the spirit of meekness.
IV THE RETURN OF THE PENITENT. Many motives, and those of the most powerful kind, urge the sinner to return to God.
1. There is the character of the invitation. It is an earnest one, a precious one, and a glorious one. It is the gospel re-echoing through the past and resounding about us at the present. This invitation proves the height, and depth, and length, and breadth of the Divine goodness.
2. There is the Author of the invitation. It proceeds from the Friend whom we have treated so ungratefully and so ungraciously; he comes after us, as it were, calling and entreating us to return; he promises us a hearty welcome when we do return; he assures us that his heart and hearth and home stand open to receive us; his arms are stretched out to embrace us.
3. There are the persons invited. The vilest are subjects of this invitation; the oldest, the worst, the most wicked, are comprehended; they are offered present pardon, they are assured of instant forgiveness, and all without money and without price: "The Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." Oh, then, since God is waiting and willing to be gracious, let not the sinner ignore that goodness, nor regard it with insensibility, nor trample underfoot his great mercy, nor treat his gracious overtures as the idle wind that passeth by; but allow himself to be led by the goodness of God to repent race.
V THE MODE OF RETURNING TO GOD. We are to take with us words, as the worshipper in the olden time did not go empty-handed, but brought with him an offering when he went to worship God.
1. The words we are required to bring are words of confession, like the poor prodigal when he said, "Father, I have sinned against Heaven, and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son;" like the contrite publican when he cried, "God be merciful to me a sinner." If we thus confess our sins, he "is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
2. There must be petition as well as confession; our words must be words of earnest pleading. Nor are we left without instruction on this head; suitable petitions are suggested, and the very words put in our lips. There is, according to the Authorized Version, a petition for forgiveness and one for favor. The former is, "Take away all iniquity;" for it is iniquity that has wrought our ruin, it is sin that is the source of all our sorrows; take it away, for by it we have fallen. Take it all away the guilt of it, the defilement of it, the dominion of it, the love of it, and the practice of it. Take it all away and forever, for it is only thus we can be saved; only thus our souls are washed and justified and sanctified in the Name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. The second part of the petition pleads for favor; it is, "Receive us graciously;" that is, receive us into thy favor, thy family, and thy service. Receive us graciously, that is, gratuitously, of thy free favor and sovereign grace; not on the ground of innocence, forNot in our innocence we trust We bow before thee in the dust: And through our Savior"s blood alone We seek acceptance at thy throne.
Not on the ground of merit, for we have sinned and merit only wrath; not on the ground of price, for we have nothing to payNothing in our hand we bring, Simply to thy cross we cling.
Not on the ground of works, for we are saved solely of the Divine mercy, according to the riches of his grace in Christ Jesus.
3. There are words of thanksgiving. The calves, even the lips, are the thank offerings and service of the lips in general; nor do these differ aught from the fruit of the lips. Thanksgiving, praise, prayer, self-dedication, and self-surrender are all expressed by the lips, and are thus their offerings or their fruit. Nay, rather unto me, thy God, Thanksgiving offer thou; To the Most High perform thy word. And fully pay thy vow: And in the day of thy distress Do thou unto me cry; I will deliver thee, and thou My Name shalt glorify.
VI FRUITS MEET FOR REPENTANCE. These in the present instance consist in the complete rejection of carnal confidences and sole dependence on God. The penitent Israelite renounces all confidence in worldly policy, and worldly allies as secured by such policy the Assyrian and the Egyptian alike. He renounces his idolatrous practices and superstitious devotions; and, depending no longer on foreign help, or objects and observances of idol-worship, or domestic resources, he places his entire and undivided trust in the living God. Henceforth the rule of his conduct and motto of his life may be conceived as summed up in the words of the psalmist: "Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the Name of the Lord our God." It has been well said that "there is no sin more usual among men than carnal confidence; to lean on our own wisdom, or wealth, or power, or supplies from others; to deify counsels and armies, or horses and treasures, and to let our hearts rise or fall, sink or bear up within us, according as the creature is helpful or useless, nearer or further from us; as if God were not a God afar off, as well as near at hand." This was one of Israel"s great sins, and which on repentance is renounced. This is a common sin, and one which all must renounce, trusting, not in an arm of flesh, but sanctifying the Lord alone in our hearts. It is when we feel our condition in this world to be one of orphanage, of weakness, destitution, desolateness, and distress, that we repose trustfully and securely in the Divine mercy and gracious fatherhood of God.
HOMILIES BY C. JERDAN Vers. 1-3. Return to God: its beginnings.
The long and terrible storm of denunciation is now at last over; the wrath-clouds roll away, and the sunshine of the Divine love bursts forth with healing in its wings. Beyond all the hurly-burly of the tempest sent as the punishment of sin, the prophet discerns the paternal tenderness and the loving patience of the God of Israel. So he begins this closing chapter of his book with a last tender entreaty to return to him who "sitteth upon the flood," and who will bless his people with peace." How changed the prophet"s style, in this final strophe, from what it is in most of the preceding! When denouncing Ephraim"s sin and doom Hoses is obscure, abrupt, rugged, and volcanic; but in Hosea 14 all is pellucid and restful and full of beauty. The whirlwind and the earthquake and the fire have given place to the still small voice. The subject in these opening verses is The beginnings of spiritual revival. In its rise there are three stages.
I THE LORD BESEECHING. (Ver. 1) As applied to Israel, the exhortation has for its background all the judgments which have been threatened throughout the Book. And since these words were written Israel "has fallen" indeed. The ten tribes were soon carried into Assyria; Judah was by-and-by driven away to weep beside the rivers of Babylon; regained Jerusalem was at length fiercely overthrown by the Romans; and for eighteen centuries now the Jews have been dispersed over the wide world, and exposed to reproach and persecution and cruelty. All this has been the punishment of Israel"s own "iniquity the political schism, the calf-worship, the Baalism, the godless pride, the unblushing immorality, and at last the rejection and murder of the Son of God. Jehovah could not avoid punishing; he could not but allow the apostate nation to lie under its doom during centuries and millenniums; but all the while the Divine heart is saying, "O Israel, return!" How wonderful that the eternal God should condescend to entreat men to repent! But the Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations". (Psa_100:5) If, however, there is to be salvation, there must be repentance, and all true repentance takes its rise in the call of God"s Spirit. The Lord seeks the sinner with his grace before the sinner can seek him. And thus Return unto the Lord" is the burden of the entire revelation of the Bible; it is the key-note of all Hebrew prophecy, as of all New Testament gospel. Not only so, but in this passage God also condescends to direct the people as to the thoughts and words" with which they may acceptably approach him in complying with his urgent entreaty (vers. 2, 8). How different all this from "the manner of man"!
II THE PENITENT PRAYING. (Ver. 2) This verse and ver. 3 form a sort of Lord"s Prayer" for backsliders. God desires no longer the animal sacrifices of the Law; indeed, the twelve tribes cannot in their exile offer any, for the temple-worship has now ceased. But he requires words" which shall be the evidence of "a broken and a contrite heart." Even these, however, he here provides for his penitent children. What need God words? He knows our hearts before we speak unto him. It is true, God needs no words; but we do, to stir up our hearts and affections" (Sibbes). Although the Lord does not now demand sacrifices, the kind of" words" which he asks recalls to our minds the three principal forms of sacrifice ordained by the Levitical Law, viz. the propitiatory, the dedicatory, and the eucharistic, represented respectively by the sin offering, the burnt offering, and the peace offering. In a true return to God there will be:
1. Words of confession. "Take away all iniquity." A child who has done wrong recovers his father"s favor so soon as he confesses his fault; so Jehovah"s children, who have made themselves "fatherless" by their apostasy, take the first step in the direction of" finding mercy " when they "return up to" (ver. 1) him with words of repentance. The penitent draws near with the leper"s confession, "Unclean! Unclean!" and with the publican"s prayer, "God be merciful to me a sinner." His first and deepest need is pardon; he wants mercy for the past, and grace to help for the future. He prays to be delivered from the power of evil; and pleads, in doing so, the merit of Jesus Christ as his Sin Offering.
2. Words of dedication. "Receive us graciously;" literally, receive good." The barrier of sin being removed through faith in the atonement, the next step in revival is the presentation of the person a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God". (Rom_12:1) It is true that of ourselves we have no good which we can offer; but we are to give to the Lord of his own. The grace which he bestows upon us we are to employ in his service and for his glory. The Christian dedicates his renewed humanity, in body and soul, to his Redeemer. (Mic_6:6-8)
3. Words of thanksgiving. So will we render the calves of our lips," i.e. we shall offer our lips as a peace offering, instead of calves. The praise of a redeemed heart is an acceptable sacrifice, and shall please the Lord better than a bullock that hath horns and hoots". (Psa_69:31) The soul that has been forgiven much loves much, and should therefore overflow with thanksgiving and praise. (Heb_13:15) Such are the three sorts of "words" which God expects from all who "return" to him. He wants words of confession like those of Ps 51; of self-dedication, like those of Ps 116; of thanksgiving, like those of Psalm 103. And, now that Christ has come, these are the sacrifices of God," alike for the sons of Israel and for sinners of the Gentiles.
III THE PENITENT RENOUNCING CREATURE-CONFIDENCES. (Ver. 3) After the threefold word-sacrifice, comes the promise of practical amendment and reformation. Israel resolves to forsake his great national sins, viz. his habit of looking for help to Assyria, his reliance upon the cavalry of Egypt or other warlike strength, and his idolatry of Baal and the calves. The people will show the sincerity of their conversion by endeavors after new obedience. They will realize that away from God they are helpless orphans; and, in all their approaches to him, appeal to his "mercy "as the "Father of the fatherless," This is just what every sinner must do in returning to the Lord. We all have Asshurs and horses and idols which we must abjure. If we will "return quite up to Jehovah our God" (ver. 1) we must put away confidence in every creature-help, and in any defense which is our own handiwork. We may have been "glued to idols"; (Hos_4:17) but we must at any cost tear them out of our hearts, even although the soul should seem to be rent asunder in the process. For true conversion implies perfect union to the Lord Jesus Christ, perpetual communion with the Holy Spirit, and persevering progress in the ways of holiness. We obey "the first and great commandment," and fulfill the chief end of our being, when we choose Jehovah as the Portion of our souls, and give him our supreme and constant and most tender love.
LESSONS.
1. The mercy of God to sinners is untiring and indestructible (ver. 1).
2. Now that Christ has died as our Sin Offering, we plead his atonement as the ground on which we ask the Lord to "take away all iniquity" (ver. 2).
3. "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit," and contrition always manifests itself in prayer (ver. 2).
4. To obey is better than sacrifice" (ver. 3).
5. The penitent sinner and the backsliding believer have this assuring motive to induce them to return to God, that, however they may be scorned by their fellow-men, they are sure of a warm welcome from him who is the "Father of the fatherless. C.J.
HOMILIES BY A. ROWLAND Vers. 1, 2. God"s message to the prodigal.
This chapter stands out in vivid contrast from much that precedes it. The denunciation of threats is over, and now Hosea turns to tender pleading with the godless. The change is like that which we see sometimes during a thunderstorm. The clouds gather, the wind sinks into a solemn silence, then the thunder rolls and crashes overhead, and men"s hearts fail them for fear. But suddenly there is a lull, the clouds break, and, as a burst of sunshine lights up the earth, the rainbow of God"s faithfulness and goodness is seen. With such a sudden and sublime transition does Hosea pass here from storm to calm, from denunciation to pleading. The prophet is addressing a nation which, as such, could not be saved. The kingdom of Israel was to be hopelessly destroyed. But the children were still "heirs of the promises," and, while the corporate society to which they belonged would be swept away, they themselves might return to their God. There is no nation so evil but that in it some may work righteousness, no family so godless but that some of its members may be loyal to Christ. Circumstances never necessitate the ruin of a soul. The desolation of society has been historically the means of saving what is best in it; e.g. if in the reign of Charles I the unscrupulous Buckingham had been successful in his foreign policy, the result would have been the establishment of a tyranny in England. Our national defeats just then were the cause of our constitutional salvation; men being roused to a consciousness of wrongdoing by the consequences of wrong-doing. So with Israel. The destruction of Israel seemed to the heathen the failure of Jehovah"s purpose; but it was the means of salvation to many who heard and obeyed in the misery of exile, as they would not have heard and obeyed in prosperity, the exhortation, "O Israel, return unto the Lord." A world-wide truth was taught by our Lord when he described the prodigal as thinking of the father"s home, when he "had spent all," and famine was in the land, so that "he began to be in want." Our text is God"s message to such a one.
I THE CONDITION OF THE SINNER.
1. A condition of estrangement. Implied in return." 0f those addressed by Hoses, some had once joined in Jehovah"s worship, but had forsaken it, while others had been taken as children to the altars of idols. These two classes are represented still. There are those who have never known God; to them he is no more than the emperor of a distant land might be, the ruler of others, one to be heard and read of, but nothing more. There are also those whose hearts were once tender, who were nominally on the side of the Church, to whom the Lord says, "I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love." Apply the text to each.
2. A condition of moral degradation. "Fallen.
(1) Godlessness is itself an inward degradation. The godless man has "fallen" below what he might have been, as a ruler of himself and a worshipper of God. He has fallen from the likeness and from the favor of God.
(2) It leads to moral degradation; so that ultimately courage, purity, and reverence in the outward life disappear. "Iniquity," i.e. an inward tendency to evil, does for the character what the sea does for the cliff, undermining it secretly, till unexpectedly it falls.
3. A condition of self-destructiveness. "Thine iniquity." Not Adam"s transgression, not thy father"s neglect or evil example, not the associations of life, but "thine own iniquity," ruins thee. Therefore, with a sense of weakness and guilt, let us return to the Lord, saying, "I have sinned against Heaven," etc.; God be merciful to me a sinner.
II THE CHARACTERISTICS OF HIS RETURN.
1. Sincerity, or thoroughness. The Pharisees were condemned for want of it. All are rejected of whom God can say, "This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth... but their heart is far from me," The Hebrew signifies, Return right up to thy God." You are not to stop at self-reformation or at sentimental feeling, but to return right up to" God, and stand face to face with him. To be nearly saved is to be altogether lost.
2. Confession. "Take with you words." Words are cheap enough. It is well that no costly sacrifice is required, but only "words," which the poorest and most illiterate can utter. Words are worthless in themselves, but they have true value when they come from an honest and good heart. If a child who has done wrong is shut up alone to think over his fault, he knows that all he has to say is, "I"m sorry." It is easy enough to say the words; yet he sits there, proud and defiant, until better thoughts come to him; and when at last he falters out "I"m sorry," it is enough to win him reconciliation. The "words " are nothing, but they mean much, for they involve self-conquest and humiliation. That is the meaning of the exhortation to the penitent. "Take with you words.
3. Entreaty.
(1) Take away all iniquity." This implies that only God can do so. The prayer involves much. We want not only the consciousness of sin or the punishment of sin removed, but the "iniquity" itself taken away. The true penitent does not say, "Take away the sins that disgrace me, but spare those by which I make money," or, "Destroy my lusts, but let ambition and pride remain." Popular sins, pet sins, as well as vile sins, are included in the words, "Take away all iniquity.
(2) And receive us graciously; " literally, "receive good." The "good" we offer God comes from himself, so that we must say of all right desire and true thought and Christian service, "Of thine own have we given thee." He can only cast out evil by pouting in good. He leaves no heart empty, but gives the new love to keep out, as well as to cast out, the old. Yet even the good he gives is so affected by our imperfections that, casting ourselves upon his condescension and mercy, we need to pray, "Receive good.
4. Resolve:
(1) To have done with the old sins. "Asshur shall not save us," etc. This is an abjuration of Israel"s three sins:
(a) trust in man (Asshur);
(b) trust in self (horses, equivalent to military power);
(c) trust in idols.
These have their modern counterparts, when we trust
(a) in the influence of others to get us on in life;
(b) in our physical or intellectual power;
(c) in our wealth and position, instead of in God.
(2) To offer perpetual thanksgiving. "So will we render the calves of our lips." The meaning of the phrase is when we have received pardon and conquest of sin, "we will praise thee with joyful lips." What more noble than praise, such as the redeemed render! what more natural, when we remember the goodness of God! what more helpful to others than the songs which of old caused the glory of God to fill the house of the Lord! "It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord," etc.
III THE ENCOURAGEMENT TO HIS OBEDIENCE.
1. It is found in the fatherliness o God. Ver. 3: "For in thee the fatherless findeth mercy." He is "thy God," to whom thou owest obedience; who has girded thee, though thou hast not known him; and who now sees thee a great way off, and has compassion on thee. When the dove found no rest for her foot in a dark and desolate world, she returned to the ark; nor had she to flutter outside it in vain. Noah saw her, and put out his hand and "took her in unto him into the ark." If Noah did that for a poor tired bird, what will not God do for his own tired child?
2. They are found in the promises of God. Ver. 4: "I will heal their backsliding," etc. He pledges himself to cure our waywardness and fickleness, and he is faithful. Therefore, though a good reputation has been lost, a pious ancestry disgraced, and holy promises broken, yet be encouraged to obey the loving exhortation, "O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God. A.R.
HOMILIES BY J.R. THOMSON Vers. 1, 2. Counsels to the sinful.
It was the office of the prophet to be faithful at once with man and with God. He was bound not to flatter man, not to conceal or palliate human sins. At the same time, it was his to declare the whole counsel of God as the Ruler of all men, the Judge of the obdurate, the Healer of the penitent.
I A REMINDER OF THE FALL. The Book of Hosea"s prophecies is full of reproaches and expostulations addressed to backsliding, idolatrous Israel. The people are charged with iniquity, and they are put in mind of the "fall" into which their ungodliness has brought them. As surely as men wander from the ways of God into the ways of error, unrighteousness, and folly, so surely do they, sooner or later, meet with a fall. It is a plain truth that the godly stand upright. Under a Divine and righteous rule it cannot be well with those who neglect and despise the moral law. Our first parents "fell" by sin, and in this they furnished an exemplification of the consequences of disobedience as a lesson to their posterity.
II AN ENCOURAGEMENT TO REPENTANCE. In the very language used in this expostulation and entreaty there is much to cheer and to justify the approach of the penitent sinner unto God.
1. There is the designation "Israel," the use of which seems a reminder of the Divine favor.
2. There is the appellation given to Jehovahthe Lord thy God;" thine, even though thou hast shown thyself so insensible and so ungrateful.
3. There is the term which the counselor employs "return," unto the Lord, implying that the right and proper path is Godward, that to have forsaken that path was deviation and error, that steps must be retraced. What stress is laid in Scripture upon sincere repentance and conversion upon the turning of the soul unto him against whom sin has been committed, needs not to be shown; yet the sinful need that such directions should be repeated, both to preserve them from any other and any false way, and to encourage diffident and desponding souls in their access to God.
III A DIRECTION TO CONFESSION AND ENTREATY. "Take with you words.
1. This is an encouragement to the expression and outpouring of the feelings of the heart. Mere words, that is, meaningless and insincere words, are vain; but words which are the utterance of a penitent and lowly soul, are acceptable.
2. Words should utter the self-abasement which is the sinner"s proper attitude of heart before a righteous Lord. Confession is indispensable; for only the hardened and insensible can withhold it.
3. Words should plead for pardon and acceptance. The prophet himself puts such language into Israel"s lips, and at the same time represents the willingness of an offended God graciously to hear and royally to answer.
APPLICATION. To show what light is furnished by the gospel of Christ to make evident alike the sinner"s condition and also the grounds and assurance of Divine favor and forgiveness. T.
HOMILIES BY D. THOMAS Vers. 1-7. Repentance, or reformation.
"O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God," etc. "After the prophet has set before the sinful nation in various ways its own guilt, and the punishment that awaits it, viz. the destruction of the kingdom, he concludes his addresses with a call to thorough conversion to the Lord, and the promise that the Lord will bestow his grace once more upon those who turn to him, and will bless them abundantly" (Delitzsch). The subject of these words is Repentance; or, the greatest reformation. Reformation is a subject on which men are never tired of talking: it is the grand text of the demagogue, as well as the leading purpose of the philanthropist. There are various kinds of reformation. There is the doctrinal reformation reformation in creed, the renunciation of one set of opinions and the adoption of another. There is the institutional reformation reformation in political, in ecclesiastical, and in social laws. There is the reformation in external character involving the renunciation of old habits and the formation of new ones. But all such reformations are of little, if any worth, apart from the moral reformation a reformation in the leading spirit and controlling dispositions of the soul, a reformation involving a thorough change of heart. This is the only reformation worth working for. In these verses we have several things worth notice in relation to it.
I ITS NATURE AND METHOD INDICATED.
1. Its nature. "O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God." The description contained in the first and third verses of this reformation implies three things.
(1) That the soul is away from God. Truly the moral heart of humanity is far gone from the great Father. The souls of men are in the "far country" of sin. "Fallen by thine iniquity." It has gone down from the high hills of spiritual purity and Divine communion.
(2) The renunciation of all dependence upon creatures. "Asshur shall not save us; we will not ride upon horses." This means We will not trust to Asshur that is, Assyria for help. Nor will we ride upon horses court friendship with Egypt from whence they are fetched. When danger comes, we will trust in God, and him only. Moral reformation involves all this. All dependence on anything short of God for salvation is given up science, philosophy, ritualism, priesthood, shall not save us.
(3) Utter abandonment of all idols. "Neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, Ye are our gods. For in thee the fatherless findeth mercy.
2. Its method. "Take with you words, and turn to the Lord." Why take words to God?
(1) Not because words can inform him of anything of which he is ignorant. With words we enlighten men; but Omniscience knows all connected with us all that we are, have been, and shall be, through all the ages of the future.
(2) Not because words can induce him to be more kind to us than he is. With words we persuade men to grant us our requests; but our words can never dispose him to do what he has not been always ready to accomplish. Words can never make him more kind and merciful than he has ever been. Why, then, use words? Because words relieve our own spirits; words aid our own devotions. This, then, is the method go to God at once, and pour out your souls before him. Before him resolve, "So will we render the calves of our lips." And before him pray. Pray for two things.
(a) His forgiveness. "Take away all sin.
(b) His acceptance. "Receive us graciously
II ITS CAUSE AND BLESSEDNESS SPECIFIED.
1. Its cause. God. "I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely .... I will be as the dew." All reformation is brought about by his agency. I will act upon the soul silently, penetratingly, revivifying, "as the dew." All true reformation brings with it God"s silent but effective agency.
2. Its blessedness.
(1) Health. "I will heal their backsliding." The soul is diseased. God is its great Physician.
(2) Divine favor. "I will love them freely: for mine anger is turned away from him." The auger with which their guilty consciences invested him is removed as a thick cloud from the sky of their soul, and it glows in the sunshine of their love.
(3) Growth. "He shall grow as the lily.
(A)the growth is connected with beauty. Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like it.
(b) Its growth is connected with strength. Cast forth his roots as Lebanon." How deeply did the roots of the cedar in Lebanon strike into the earth! and how firm their grasp! The storms of centuries could not remove them.
(c) Its growth is connected with expansiveness. "His branches shall spread." Widely grew the branches of those old cedars, offering to the traveler a cooling shade from the sun and a shelter from the tempest. How a divinely formed soul expands! It outgrows the boundaries of sects and the limits of creeds. Its sympathies become world-wide.
(d) Its growth is connected with fragrance. "His beauty shall be as the olive tree, and his smell as Lebanon." Sweet was the aroma that was swept by the wind over those old hills. How delectable the fragrance of a holy life!
(e) Its growth is connected with social usefulness. It shall offer protection to men. "They that dwell under his shadow shall return." Where car we flee in distress but to the sympathy and love of the good? Not only protection, but beneficent progress. "They shall revive as the corn, and grow as the vine. D.T.
HOMILIES BY J. ORR Vers. 1-3. The prayer of the penitent.
The prophecy does not close without comforting glimpses into the future, and sweet words of promise. The opening verses of this section invite the nation to repentance. They put a prayer into the people"s lips with which to return to God.
I THE INVITATION. (Ver. 1) The door of mercy stands open to Israel. But the invitation addressed to the ancient people is equally, in Christ, addressed to every sinner. Consider, accordingly:
1. The condition in which the sinner is found. "Fallen by thine iniquity." "There is none righteous, no, not one". (Rom_3:10) We have all fallen by our iniquity.
(1) Fallen from the state in which we were created.
(2) Fallen out of the Divine favor.
(3) Fallen into wretchedness, guilt, discord with self, pollution, bondage.
(4) Fallen in some cases under heavy strokes of the Divine anger.
We have so fallen that we cannot raise ourselves up again.
2. To whom the sinner is pointed. "The Lord thy God." Israel"s God and ours. God is our God, as being
(1) our Maker;
(2) our Sustainer;
(3) our moral Ruler;
(4) our Savior.
He is the God and Father of Jesus Christ our Lord. He gives us in the promises of the gospel a claim upon himself. He is ours in offer, and will be ours in fact, if only we will receive him. There is no Savior beside him, (Hos_13:4) and no other is needed. He alone is all-sufficient.
3. The invitation given to the sinner. "0 Israel, return unto the Lord thy God." God might command, but he condescends to invite, to entreat. (2Co_5:20) He asks us to return to him. He can ask no less, for without penitent return, salvation is impossible. His mercy is seen in this, that he asks no more no sacrifices, no price, no probationary curriculum, no works of the Law. But the return must be sincere, not with the body, but with the mind, the affections, the will.
II THE PRAYER. (Ver. 2) The penitent, resolved on returning to God, is counseled to take with him "words." The inward penitence is to express itself outwardly. It is to utter itself in prayer. This is the only sacrifice God will require. The prayer with which we are to come is:
1. Prayer for forgiveness. "Take with you words, and turn to the Lord: say unto him, Take away all iniquity." Forgiveness is the first need of our nature. Till sin is forgiven us we can have no peace with God, we cannot be visited by his love or made partakers of his Spirit. Forgiveness at once precedes, and is a pledge of, the communication of every other blessing. It is, therefore, the thing we first ask lot We are to confess sin and to seek the pardon of it. (1Jn_1:9)
2. The prayer of uprightness. "Accept what is good for thus the second clause must be rendered. The language is not that of self-righteousness, but of sincere motive. The penitent knows his unworthiness, but is conscious at the same time that his prayer no longer proceeds from feigned lips; (Psa_17:1) that his spirit is truly contrite; that there is some good thing "in his heart towards the Lord God". (1Ki_13:14) He recognizes this:
(1) As a fruit of Divine grace in the soul therefore a pledge of acceptance. God, who by his Spirit draws the sinner to himself, will not east him off when he comes. (Joh_6:37, Joh_6:44, Joh_6:45)
(2) As essential to forgiveness. For though it is God"s mercy, not our own righteousness, that saves us, it is yet essential to acceptance that our spirit, in returning to God, be without guile. (Psa_32:2 Psa_51:4, Psa_51:6) Coming to God with upright intent, and conscious that we do so, it is natural that we should appeal to this in prayer.
3. Prayer in order to praise. "So will we render the calves of our lips." Salvation carries with it the obligation to consecration. (Rom_12:1) The penitent has no other desire than now to live to God, rendering to him spiritual sacrifices. He asks God to open his lips (by forgiveness), that he may thereafter show forth God"s praise. (Psa_51:15) We render to God "the calves of our lips
(1) in acknowledgment of him;
(2) in thanksgiving; (Heb_13:15)
(3) in praises; (Psa_40:3 Psa_1:2-3)
(4) in confession of him before men.
III THE VOW. (Ver. 5.) With prayer is connected a solemn vow. Israel renounces all sinful trusts, and looks to God only. He renounces:
1. Trust in man. "Asshur shall not save us." The world is a poor savior. It promises much, but gives little. Its favor is deceitful. Its will to help is even more limited than its power. But its power is not great. It cannot save when God contends with us. It must leave us to shift for ourselves at death. It has no salvation for the soul for eternity.
2. Trust in his own strength. "We will not ride upon horses." Israel had multiplied horses. He put trust in them for his deliverance. This trust, with every other of a similar kind, he now renounced. Neither in war, nor in peace, nor in anything he did, would he exalt himself as independent of God. He would be humble.
3. Trust in idols. "Neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, Ye are our gods." Thus, in succession, Israel renounced, as Christians would say, the world, the flesh, and the devil. Every heart not serving God has its idol its something which it puts in God"s place. This it now renounces, and gives him all the glory. The prayer concludes with an appeal to the Divine pity. "For in thee the fatherless findeth mercy." The soul without God is as one orphaned. In penitence it seeks the pity of him who compassionates the fatherless. God feels this pity for his alienated children. J.O.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator1887 · Public DomainOn vv1–3O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God.
Hos_14:1
O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God.
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Mans evil estate, and hope of deliverance
While the freeness of Gods mercy is the leading idea suggested by the text, it is not the only one: the condition of our nature is accurately expressed, as is the mode by which alone it can be ameliorated.
I. The state into which man has brought himself. There are few things more important than the fastening on the sinner all the blame of his sin. Adam might have obeyed the simple injunction, and, holding on his probation, might have won for himself and his descendants a hereafter fenced up against the spoiler. God foreknew that Adam would transgress, and prepared for the contingency. We can see that if there had been no ruin there could have been no restoration. The work of redemption takes, of course, for granted the apostasy of our race. On Adam must be fastened all the blame of his transgression. There was no extenuating plea which the offender could in justice have urged. The blame of the fall belongs individually to man. Thou hast not fallen through an inherent inability to stand; He has so constituted thee that thou mightest have stood. Thou hast not fallen through the ground being slippery, and thick-set with snares. He placed thee where thy footing was firm, and thy pathway direct. So that upon man himself comes home wholly all the effect of the fall. We argue from this the unqualified gratuitousness of Gods interposition on mans behalf. In whatever degree there may be a necessity of sinning, in no degree is there a necessity of perishing. God places no man in such a moral condition that our falling into perdition is unavoidable. Let a man have once heard of Christ, and from that moment forward salvation is within arms length of this man. Man can have no right to take off the burthen of responsibilities and cast it on the secret decrees of his Maker.
II. The mode of mans deliverance. Return unto the Lord thy God. It comes not within our power to destroy or diminish Gods title to our service. The fall did not do away with Gods claim on man. Some teach that God proportions His demands to our impaired capacities, and will be satisfied with the honest endeavour, seeing that we cannot come up to the thorough performance. But this is making God answerable for the apostasy of man. We may, however, gather an inference of consolation as well as one of admonition. There is the groundwork of hope, that God will yet look mercifully upon us, and restore us, seeing that, notwithstanding our alienation, He is still our God. Man of himself hath no power to turn unto God; but since God invites, He surely enables. He bestows all requisite assistance, and a clear pathway has been made. (H. Melvill, B. D.)
On repentance
In the history of the children of Israel we see the perverseness and ingratitude of man, and the forbearance and goodness of God. Israels sins were peculiarly aggravated by their having been committed after repeated and wonderful deliverances, after signal chastisements and mercies. At the period of Hoseas prophecy Israels continued rebellion against God had nearly exhausted His patience toward that people. Though these words were primarily addressed to Israel, we shall consider them--
I. As conveying a gracious exhortation to all sinners to return unto the lord.
1. We must return unto the Lord with consideration. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Consider your ways.
2. With weeping and supplication. A proper review of our past follies and perverse wanderings, and of Gods mercies and patience towards us, will produce sorrow of heart, will cause tears of compunction to flow.
3. With humility. Our lofty imaginations and high opinion of ourselves must be brought low.
4. Through the Mediator. We cannot expect to find mercy unless, we seek mercy through Christ. Of this righteousness, not our own, we must make mention.
5. Without delay. This may be urged from the shortness and uncertainty of life, and from the greatness of the work which we have to do.
II. As declaring the reasonableness of the exhortation. For thou hast fallen by thine iniquity. The text is applicable to the case of backsliders who have fallen from their steadfastness. But all mankind have fallen from God. Adam fell, and in him fell all his posterity.
1. Man is fallen from the favour of God, and is under the displeasure of God.
2. Man is fallen under the dominion of sin and the curse of the law.
3. Man is fallen into the snares and power of the devil.
4. Man, if not recovered by Divine grace, will at last fall into the bottomless pit.
Apply to those who are still in their fallen state, and are wandering from God.
1. Yield to the solemn and affecting truth that you have fallen by your iniquity, and let this truth stir you up to inquire with solicitude, What must I do to be saved?
2. Listen to Gods gracious invitation, and believe His willingness to receive you.
3. Contemplate what has been done to accomplish the great work of your redemption.
4. Consider the awful doom of the finally impenitent transgressor. (E. Edwards.)
Repentance as return
The Divine love is content with nothing less than return. And nothing less and nothing else will give safety. There must not only be a cessation of the present journey, but a definite and conclusive retracement of the steps. What the prophet sighs for, and what his God so earnestly commands, is not the mere inactive terror of proceeding onwards when the fiery abyss stretches to the view, nor the attempt, while that terror lasts, to breathe a hasty vow or utter a disordered prayer. What the Divine love insists on is a decided and complete retreat, such as when, conscious of peril and aware of only one refuge, and that in God, he eagerly seeks Him with the whole heart. I will arise and go to my Father is his earnest and practical resolution. (John Eadie, D. D. , LL. D.)
A message to backsliding Israel
I. The lords address unto His backsliding ones. O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God. God glorifies His sanctifying grace in some, and His pardoning grace in others. Let the children of God be in what state they may, as it respects their acts of grace or sin, this makes no alteration in the Lords love unto them. As they have the body of sin and death dwelling within them, there is a continual propensity in their fallen natures, to slide into themselves, and to backslide from the Lord Jesus Christ. Israels case was extreme. Be could not return unto the Lord by any strength of his own. He must be fallen by his iniquity into a state and kind of desperation. This was the fruit of his iniquity. It is the Lord Himself who here speaks. He does so in the language of commiseration. From these words what an infinity of grace and blessed encouragement may be derived, so as to encourage the people of the Lord to trust and hope in Him. None but backsliders know and feel the sorrows which arise from the same.
II. One substantial reason for the return of backsliding Israel to God. O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God. It lies in their relation to Him, and His relation to them. All sin is the effect of unbelief. Every act of departure from the Lord is the fruit of it; let it be mental, or let it be open and manifest. Backsliders need great encouragement, even from the Lord Himself, to return to Him. He is pleased to give it them. The interest the Lord God hath in His people can never be broken in upon, neither can their interest in Him ever be impaired or cease. It is always the same on both sides. The intercourse between the Lord and His people may be interrupted. But God is immutable in His love and mercy.
III. The reason made use of to hasten Gods peoples return to Him. Thou hast fallen by thine iniquity. The mercy of God in Christ Jesus exceeds the very uttermost of our minds to receive any adequate ideas of. Guilt in the conscience produces fear in the heart; so long as we indulge the same it weakens our faith and keeps us from Christ. (Samuel Eyles Pierce.)
A call to repentant return
In Hoseas days idolatry was first universally set up and countenanced by regal power. Here we have--
I. An exhortation to repentance, with the motives enforcing the same. Every word hath its weight, and in a manner is an argument to enforce this returning. Israel is a word of covenant. Return unto the Lord Jehovah, who is the chief good, the fountain of all good. Thy God in covenant, who will make good His gracious covenant unto thee. Thou hast fallen by thine iniquity; thine own inventions have brought these miseries upon thee, and none but God can help thee out of these miseries. God comes not as a sudden storm upon His people, but gives them warning before He smites them. He is a God of long-suffering, and has a special regard to His own children. Another point--
II. The best provision for preventing of destruction is spiritual means. Of all spiritual means the best is, to return to the Lord. In this returning there must be a stop. To make this stop there must be examination and consideration, humiliation and displeasure against ourselves, judging and taking revenge of ourselves, for our ways and courses. There must be a resolution to overcome impediments. In the original it is a very emphatic, Return even to Jehovah. Do not only begin to return, but so return as you never cease coming till you come to Jehovah. Where there is a falling into sin there will be a falling into misery and judgment. The cause of every mans misery is his own sin. Then take heed of sin. Pray to God to make our way plain before us, and not to lead us into temptation. Take with you words. They who would have help and comfort against all sins and sorrows must come to God with words of prayer. Barrenness and want of words to go unto God are blameworthy. This is for consolation: if they can take words, and can pray well, they shall speed well. (R. Sibbes, D. D.)
Sin separates from God
You may sometimes see in the ocean a pile of rock rising steeply to a considerable height, and having on it here and there, where a patch of soil covers it, the remains of what was once a luxuriant vegetation. If you examine it, and also the mainland a few furlongs off, you will come to the conclusion that they were at one time, now long gone by, united together. They have become separated by the action of the sea. At first there was but a small inlet, scarcely large enough for a single boat to anchor in; this was gradually enlarged by the incessant beating of the surf until it became a broad bay, and at last the sea, striking with more and more force upon the cliffs every year, cut its way completely through, and now what was once part of the mainland is but a solitary and desolate isle. One of the most direct and appalling effects of sin is the breach which it makes between the human heart and God. Man is made in the likeness of God; he is an offspring of the Divine thought and love; he is endowed with the same moral and spiritual capacities as those which God Himself possesses; but let sin be suffered to find an entrance into his heart, and, like the gnawing, devouring, destructive sea, it will eat away all the holy and sacred ties which bind his:heart to God, and cut him off from God, and leave him inwardly lonely and desolate. (B. Wilkinson, F. G. S.)
How to return to an earnest Christian life
As long as the bright summer sun shines into the forest glades the fungus has no chance to flourish; but when the sunshine wanes, in the months of autumn, the woods are filled with these strange products of decay. It is because we drift from God that our lives are the prey to numberless and nameless ills. Make the best of all new starts, and returning to the more earnest habits of earlier days, or beginning them from now, give yourself to God, believing that He will receive and welcome you, without a word of remonstrance or a moment of interval. Form habits of morning and evening prayer; especially in the morning get time for deep communion with God, waiting at His footstool, or in the perusal of the Bible, till He speaks to you. Take up again your habits of attendance at the house of God: in the morning and the evening go with the multitude that, with the voice of praise, keeps holy-day, and in the afternoon find some niche of the Christian service, in your home or elsewhere. Then, inasmuch as you do not wish to be a slip-carriage, which, when the couplings are unfastened, runs for a little behind the express, but gets slower and slower till it comes to a stand, ask the grace of the Holy Spirit to confirm these holy desires, keeping you true to them, causing you to be steadfast, immovable, and set on maintaining life on a higher level. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.)
God always watching for our return
Bianconi, the introducer of the car system in Ireland, on leaving his home in Italy, found his most trying leave-taking in separating from his mother. She fainted as he left her. Her last words were words which he never forgot: When you remember me, think of me as waiting at this window watching for your return. We may think of God in the same way if we have departed from Him at all. In spite of all our faults, all our sins, He is always watching for our return, for His mercy endureth for ever.
For thou hast fallen by thine iniquity.
Our fall by sin
The sight of fallen greatness is exceedingly affecting to the mind of a thoughtful man, and excites inquiries concerning the cause or causes of it. The prophet looked on the kingdom of Israel fallen from its past strength and honour, and declares the cause of the fall to be--iniquity.
I. The fall by sin is the most grievous in human experience.
1. The fall by sin is from the highest relationships the soul can enjoy. No relationships, how distinguished and valued soever, can equal those of God, There are none so essential to the souls good and safety. Without holiness no true relationship with Him can be sustained.
2. The fall by sin is from lifes great purpose. Short as life is, it has a great mission to fulfil. Eternal life has to be secured. The worlds truest good has to be promoted. Sin causes a lamentable failure.
3. The fall by sin is a loss of truest power. A right life wields a great influence. No power can be compared with that of a holy character. This power is lost by sin.
4. The fall by sin is from truest content of soul. The hallowed quiet and peace depart. Painful misgivings and pangs of remorse tear the breast. The consciousness of guilt prevents the light and joy of hope.
II. This fall is the inevitable result of sin. The course of sin is the act of mans free will. But if he choose the path he cannot escape the ruin.
1. The path of sin leads to ruin.
(1) The pleasures of the way cannot avert the consequences.
(2) The fall may be delayed, but it will come.
2. None can pursue the path of sin and escape the ruin. The individual cannot; the Church cannot; the nation cannot.
III. For this fall man himself is responsible. He falls by his own iniquity,
1. None can compel another to sin.
2. As none can compel another to sin, so none can compel his fall.
Apply--
1. Sin with such power and consequences should have our intensest hate, and should be guarded against.
2. He who is fallen should forsake his sin, and seek mercy and grace from God. Gods mercy can cover the past, and His grace can sanctify and secure the future. (Rombeth.)
Message to the remnant
So the admonition of Hosea has ended, and the note of destruction has been sounded. It only remains to look for a remnant out of the fallen nation, which by repentance and faithfulness may plead with God for their own rescue if not for the nations restoration. Hope, unwilling to be quenched in the pious patriarchs breast, suggests words of returning to God, to relinquishment of human politics, and reliance on His faithfulness. To such a remnant, be it small or great, the everlasting mercy of God offers out of the jaws of ruin, as out of death and the grave, the possibility of return to Him who is not afar from every one of us. If there are any that will understand, let them not charge their Maker with folly. He has dealt justly by sinful Israel, and will deal mercifully with all men repentant. (Rowland Williams, D. D.)
Gods call to the fallen
God seems to find an argument in the very fact of our fall. He is moved with compassion at the spectacle. He sees from what a height to what a depth man has fallen.
1. The call to return implies that we had wandered away. Our fall has indeed been occasioned by our wandering. All sin originates in the apostasy of the human heart from God. Sin would never have entered human hearts, and defiled the lives of men, if man had been true to his primal relations with God. As with the race, so with the individual. Moral deterioration and corruption naturally and necessarily ensue from the apostasy of the soul from God. Evil works naturally flow from the corrupt condition. The fallen soul not only loses contact and fellowship with God, but comes under the influence of a certain feeling of aversion, and almost of antipathy, towards God which leads him to shrink from the very thought of God. The apostate man is fallen not only in position, but in character. Innocence has been forfeited instead of being developed, and sin reigns where moral beauty should be crowned. Man needs no revelation to convince him of his fall. He alone of all the animals fails to live up to his own proper ideal, and violates in many cases systematically the laws of his own nature. Fallen in position and character, he is fallen in conduct also. Then the first thing needful for the fallen and falling is to return to God. He who invites us wants us to come back to Him. (W. Hay Aitken, M. A.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible1887 · Public DomainOn vv1–2Hosea 12 - Hos_14:1
THE FINAL ARGUMENT
Hosea 12 - Hos_14:1
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THE impassioned call with which the last chapter closed was by no means an assurance of salvation: "How am I to give thee, up, Ephraim? how am I to let thee go, Israel? On the contrary, it was the anguish of Love, when it hovers over its own on the brink of the destruction to which their willfulness has led them, and before relinquishing them would seek, if possible, some last way to redeem. Surely that fatal morrow and the peoples mad leap into it are not inevitable! At least, before they take the leap, let the prophet go back once more upon the moral situation of today, go back once more upon the past of the people, and see if he can find anything else to explain that bias to apostasy {Hos_11:7} which has brought them to this fatal brink-anything else which may move them to repentance even there. So in chapters 12 and 13 Hosea turns upon the now familiar trail of his argument, full of the Divine jealousy, determined to give the people one other chance to turn; but if they will not, he at least will justify Gods relinquishment of them. The chapters throw even a brighter light upon the temper and habits of that generation. They again explore Israels ancient history for causes of the present decline; and, in especial, they cite the spiritual experience of the Father of the Nation, as if to show that what of repentance was possible for him is possible for his posterity also. But once more all hope is seen to be in vain; and Hoseas last travail with his obstinate people closes in a doom even more awful than its predecessors."
The division into chapters is probably correct; but while chapter 13 is well ordered and clear, the arrangement, and, in parts, the meaning of chapter 12 are very obscure.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary1892 · Public DomainOn v1CRITICAL NOTES.] The guilt of the sinful nation and…
CRITICAL NOTES.] The guilt of the sinful nation and the punishment awaiting have been described: now there is a call to conversion, and a promise that God will bless abundantly.
Hos_14:1. Return] Heb. intensive, expressing strong desire. Unto] Lit. up to, not merely towards the Lord. “Great is repentance which maketh men to reach quite up to the throne of glory,” is a Jewish saying.
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Hos_14:2. Words] Not empty, yet outward gifts not required; only words, and these even found. Rec-] Lit. receive the good, viz. the words of sincere repentance, given by thyself (1Ch_29:14). Calves] i.e. our lips shall be for calves. Instead of offering sacrifice we give thanksgiving and praise, the fruit of our lips (Heb_13:5).
Hos_14:3. Save] Israel relied upon Assyria and Egypt; now horses (warlike power) and the work of our hands (idolatry) are entirely renounced. Fatherless] Descriptive of Israel’s condition without God; a reason for turning from idols, and an inducement to prayer (Exo_22:22; Deu_10:18).
HOMILETICS
REAL CONVERSION TO GOD DESCRIBED.—Hos_14:1-3
There is a change in the words of the prophet now. Wrath and threatening are past, and “sweetness and light,” like the sun, burst from the dark clouds. Every word of the invitation is full of mercy, urgent upon Israel and upon all who have gone astray. God is still unchangeable and true to his covenant. There is hope for all who sincerely repent and return to him. The character of this return is clearly described in the text.
I. Its necessity. “For thou hast fallen.” This is the first dawn of light upon the sinner. God discovers to him the abyss into which he has fallen.
1. He has fallen by iniquity: not a mere stumble, but a fall. All sin is a deep fall. A fall from God into idolatry; from holiness into guilt; from honour to disgrace. A fall from which we cannot raise ourselves. It is a pit of distress, “an horrible pit and miry clay” (Psa_40:2), out of which God alone can deliver us. “Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do thy first works.”
2. He has fallen by his own iniquity. Nations often ascribe their calamity to civil dissension, foolish rules, and disuse of military discipline: to the cruelty of the enemy and reverse of fortune; but the fall is caused by opposition to God, and contempt of his word. Individuals blame their circumstances and their fate; but sin is their own act and deed. The fall is the result of their own conduct. The sinner eats the fruit of his own way, and is filled with his own devices. But though fallen he need not stay in his sin. The way of return is open. The invitation is given. “Return unto the Lord thy God.”
II. Its nature. “Return (up to) the Lord thy God.” True conversion is abandonment of all sin and restoration to all good.
1. Idolatry is abandoned. “Neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, Ye are our gods.” It is folly to trust to creatures which God has made. How much greater folly to adore things which we ourselves have made. The penitent renounces all idolatry, and views God as the Lord his God. Williams gives a graphic account in his missionary enterprises of the conversion of a chief from idolatry. Romatane decreed the destruction of his temples, the conflagration of his gods, and the erection of a house for God. We must not pride ourselves in monuments of genius, gains of the world, and external performances in religion. Consecration to God excludes every kind of worship to strange gods. “Make no mention of the name of other gods, neither let it be heard out of thy mouth” (Exo_23:13).
2. Former sins are renounced. Israel were guilty of two things—reliance upon foreign aid and upon their own warlike strength. (a) Human dependence is renounced. “Asshur shall not save us.” They will betake themselves no more to an arm of flesh: for vain is the help of man. Human helps must never take the place of God. All merit and self-righteousness must be renounced. The best proof of true repentance is utter forsaking of former sin. (b) Dependence upon self is renounced. The horse was a symbol of their own, as well as foreign strength. “A horse is a vain thing for safety, neither shall he deliver any by his great strength.” The strongest self-defences are nothing when most needed. Sennacherib with all his cavalry was no match for the angel of God. We must not look to creature strength, to personal merit, for salvation. “The sufficiency of my merit is to know that my merit is not sufficient,” says Quarles. “Some put their trust in chariots, and some in horses, but we will remember the name of the Lord our God.”
3. Entire return to God is seen. The true penitent rises up from his fall, feels that he cannot stay in distance, and returns right up to God. Many vow and never perform, resolve and resolve again, but never forsake their sins. Others shed tears, feel desires, and take some steps towards repentance, and conclude that they are safe. The prodigal started home, did not merely turn his face, nor stop half-way; but “came to his father,” up to his father’s house, quite home.—Many come out of Egypt who never enter Canaan; put on garments of sorrow, who never rend their hearts and return to God. Half-conversions are unsafe; “almost a Christian” is not enough. Nothing short of actual conversion will do; an entire change is necessary. Whatever distance we travel, however high we mount in religion, if we come short of Christ we cannot be saved. “If thou wilt return, O Israel, saith the Lord, return unto me” (Jer_4:1).
III. Its method. “Take with you words and turn to the Lord.” Words are not necessary to God. We do not induce him to bless us by mere words. We may argue and persuade men to grant a thing; but words without meaning are sounding brass and tinkling cymbal.
1. Take words of confession. God does not require costly gifts; nor burnt-offerings of goats and bullocks; but a humble and contrite heart; a full and free confession of sin. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
2. Take words of prayer. “Say unto him.” God himself supplies the words and directs our hearts. We are sensible of inaptitude and ignorance; but he bestows the spirit of prayer, and orders our speech before him (Job_37:19); Method is helpful in everything, and the ordering of words in prayer, words marshalled like military ranks, may quicken and discipline. “Method is the soul of business.” Ask for two things. (a) Take away iniquity. The true penitent is most concerned about sin, desires to be free from its consequences and dominion, to be entirely cleansed and preserved in the future. “All iniquity.” We must not have partial zeal, but strike at all sin, great and small. God must take it away from our hearts and lives. We can neither remove its guilt nor destroy its power. God’s grace can deliver, renew and save. “If the Son make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” (b) Receive us graciously. When God has pardoned sin and imparted grace, he accepts our imperfect services. “Give what thou demandest and then require what thou wilt,” says Augustine. The gifts are from God and then received by him. “For all things come of thee, and of thine own have we given thee.”
3. Take words of thanksgiving. “So will we render the calves, i.e. the fruit, of our lips, giving thanks to his name” (Heb_13:15). Those that receive much from God “will offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually.” The expressions of the lips will spring from a grateful heart. Lip service without sincerity of heart is an abomination to God: but a holy life is a perpetual thank-offering. The sacrifices of the law are abolished; but God’s goodness lays us under deep obligation to praise him. The penitent feels that he cannot praise too much, and resolves that the language of his lips and the fruit of his life shall be given to God. “Excellent speech becometh not a fool: much less do lying lips a prince.”
IV. Its motive.
1. God will hear prayer. This we may presume, and hence the request. “Take words.” But this truth is specially revealed and taught in the word of God. The grand fact which distinguishes God from heathen deities is the fact that he is accessible. “O thou that hearest prayer!” We have every encouragement and every motive to pray. “It is the first thing wherewith a righteous life beginneth, and the last wherewith it doth end. So much of our lives is celestial and divine as we spend in the exercise of prayer,” writes Hooker.
2. God will have mercy upon the miserable. “With thee the fatherless findeth mercy.” Men without God are fatherless; orphans in a sinful world. Israel was helpless, and the prey to every oppressor. The sinner forsaking God forsakes his own mercy. Christ does not leave his people orphans, or comfortless (Joh_14:18). God, “the Father of the fatherless,” will have compassion on returning sinners. Men are cruel, but God is kind, and reserves his greatest mercy for greatest need. God governs not as an absolute monarch, but as a tender father. He has greater pleasure in showing his goodness than his power. “The poor committeth himself unto thee: thou art the helper of the fatherless.”
HOMILETIC HINTS AND OUTLINES
Hos_14:1. Fallen. The holy contrasted with the sinful state of man. Fallen in nature and condition, in pursuit and desire. God calls men to him by his prophets and his providence. “O Israel.” “It is well to hear when God calls through his deeds; but it is better to hear his words.”
Return.
1. The object. “The Lord thy God,”—not to a strange god. The God of mercy, and the fountain of all good.
2. The reason. “Thou hast fallen.” Thoughts of a fall should make us think of rising from our sad condition.
Hos_14:2. Take words. The influence of words in prayer—
1. Not necessary to inform God of our wants.
2. A means of stirring up and relieving our own hearts. Words require more exertion than thoughts, and influence our minds by their sounds.
3. Exercise a power over others often when uttered—prompts them to kindred feelings and acts, and quickens them with pathos, passion, and thought.
4. When our words accord with our hearts and the Scriptures we shall be encouraged.
5. God supplies us with words adapted to our varied feelings and necessities. Come to God with his own words. Plead help in his own promises, and you shall find it. “Men must as well look to their words, as to their feet, when they come before God; and see that their affections in prayer be not without answerable expressions in lips.”
Say unto him. Mentally and vocally, with spirit and speech. Prayer is not the labour of the lips, but the travail of the heart, and God hath promised to answer his people before they call (Isa_65:24). By calling upon his name we neither inform him of what he knows not, nor move him to show us more mercy than he intendeth. But yet prayers are necessary, as a means which God will have used, that he may receive what he of free mercy giveth. Besides, it prepareth us holily to enjoy the things received; and makes us ready either to wait for them or to want them; and to be content, that he may be glorified, though we be not gratified [Trapp].
Prayer to God to take away all iniquity, contains a confession of sin and expresses our faith, that we place our whole hope of recovering our lost purity and of obtaining salvation in the mercy of Christ. Receive good. What other good can we offer, than detestation of our past sin, with burning desire of holiness? This is the burnt-offering. Lastly, we will repay the calves of our lips, is the promise of that solemn vow, most acceptable to God, whereby we bind ourselves to keep in continual remembrance all the benefits of God, and to render ceaseless praise to the Lord, who has bestowed on us such priceless gifts [Pusey].
Hos_14:3. Fatherless. A plea for orphans. God takes special care of them in his law (Exo_22:22.) and providence (Psa_68:4-5; Psa_27:10).
1. A description of the sinner’s condition. Without the love, help, and guidance of a father.
2. A display of God’s mercy. When earthly fathers sleep in the grave, God watches over and provides for orphan children. This should be a motive to penitence, prayer, and daily trust in God.
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 14
Hos_14:2. “Words are the daughters of earth, and deeds are the sons of heaven.”
Hos_14:3. Gods. At the introduction of Christianity into this country, a general council was summoned to consider the new doctrines of Paulinus. All present were unanimous as to the utter inefficiency of the gods whom they worshipped. Coifi, the pagan high-priest, in an eloquent harangue proposed their overthrow, and casting aside his priestly garments, called for arms, which Saxon priests were forbidden to wield, and for a horse, which they were not permitted to mount; and thus accoutred, galloped to the shrine at Godmundham, where the chief idol stood, hurled his lance into the enclosure, and profaned the consecrated shrine. The people, encouraged by the example of their priest, destroyed the sacred temple.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible1900 · Public DomainOn v1While the freeness of God’s mercy is the leading…
Hos 14:1
While the freeness of God’s mercy is the leading idea suggested by these words, it is not the only one; on the contrary, the condition of our nature is accurately expressed, as is the mode by which alone it can be ameliorated.
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I. Consider, first, the state into which man has brought himself. There are few things more important, whether we view mankind collectively or individually, than the fastening on the sinner all the blame of his sin. God may invite the prodigal to return, but God has nothing to do with his wandering away into the desert. Thou hast not fallen through an inherent inability to stand; He has so constituted thee that thou mightest have stood. Thou hast not fallen through the ground being slippery, and thick-set with snares; He placed thee where thy footing was firm, and thy pathway direct. Upon man himself come home wholly all the effects of the fall. In whatever degree there may be a necessity of sinning, in no degree is there a necessity of perishing. God places no man in such a moral condition that his falling into perdition is unavoidable. Let a man have once heard of Christ, and from that moment forward salvation is within arm’s length of this man. Is he willing to be saved? Then he may be saved. Is he unwilling? Then, at least, he perishes by his own choice; and our righteous, and merciful, and redeeming God is clear in judgment when He leaves the obdurate one to the fruit of his own folly.
II. Observe the mode of deliverance, as it may be gathered from the invitation: "O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God." (1) The fall did not do away with God’s claim on man. Man could not cease to belong to God as a creature, when man had given himself to Satan; and this important fact is assumed, if not asserted, in the words of our text. The party addressed is the fallen, but the party addressing is still the Lord his God. Disobedience has removed man from the centre to the outskirts of the universe, but in one great sense it could not remove him from God, "who is that infinite sphere," as expressed by an old writer, "whose centre is everywhere, and circumference nowhere." (2) We gather an inference of consolation from the fact that thou, "Israel, hast fallen by thine iniquity." There is the groundwork of hope, that God will yet look mercifully upon us and restore us, seeing that, notwithstanding our alienation, He is still our God. The message, "Return unto the Lord thy God," is full of consolation, because it invites us to the Being from whom all our rebellion has not been able to divide us. (3) That which God invites us to do must be possible for us to do. If God calls on us to return we are not at liberty to question that there lies no impossibility against our returning. Now this assumes two things: (i) that God has removed all existing obstacles: (ii) that He bestows all requisite assistance in the performance of it.
H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit, No. 2143.
Hos 14:1-2
How to return to God.
I. The first act of the awakened soul is usually an act of prayer, and it is most natural, and indeed most proper, that it should be so. The very act of expressing our need has a tendency both to bring about clearer views of what it is that we need, and to intensify our desire. Inward silence and reserve tend to benumb the faculties and to check the rising desires of the soul, when the outpouring of earnest supplication seems to stir us to our inmost depths.
II. Notice the urgency of this utterance, which God’s love puts as it were in our mouths. There is only one kind of prayer that is at all appropriate in the lips of an awakened sinner, who finds himself without God in the world, but who desires to arise and go to His Father: and that is the urgent, specific entreaty for present forgiveness and salvation.
III. The divinely suggested utterance of our text is not only an urgent prayer, but it is also the expression of a distinct change in our moral attitude towards God. It marks the end of the life of aversion from God, and the beginning of a true conversion to God. "Take with you words" says the voice of Heavenly Love, "and turn unto the Lord." Let there be a distinct reversal of your former attitude of independence and alienation.
IV. When thus with all our hearts we truly seek Him, it will not be long before we become aware of something that seems at first to rise like a barrier between Him and us, shutting us off from all contact with Him. What about our sins? This experience is evidently foreseen in our text, where we have a most definite and specific request for an immediate and most necessary benefit. There stands the barrier, and nothing can be done until it is removed; and so the Father’s love bids us pray, "Take away all iniquity."
When this fatal barrier is removed, then is the way clear and open to the Father’s house; and may we not say into the Father’s arms? "Receive us graciously." We need not fear going home to God. Their are no taunts on His lips, no frown on His brow; only infinite tenderness in His heart. He is too great to be otherwise than gracious; He has done too much to open up the new and living way not to be ready to welcome us home when at length we do come.
W. Hay Aitken, The Mission Pulpit, No. 72.
References: Hos 14:1, Hos 14:2.—W. Aitken, The Love of the Father, p. 113. Hos 14:1-3.—G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 162.
Hos 14:2
There is a porch even within the sanctuary of repentance. There is a pause of preparation, words selected, distinct movement, accurate speaking, an order in prayer, a new relation to God recognized, an audience asked, reception given,—leading up to self-dedication.
I. Words are immense helps to thoughts. You will never think accurately, nor think continuously, nor think without wandering, without words. Therefore, never be indifferent to the language in which you clothe your religion. "Take with you words."
II. When the words are ready, "turn." Adjust the attitude of your mind. It only wants a real "turn." The back where the face was, and the face where the back was; looking the other way,—away from the world, away from the past, straight into the love of Christ.
III. Words are sacrifice. It is a pleasant and a holy thought that we all of us carry about with us wherever we go the means of sacrifice to God. We should offer all we have. Our lips should make sacrifice. Sacrifice, in its high propitiatory sense we cannot, and we need not, offer sacerdotally. There is no sacrifice in any Christian worship. We only plead one sacrifice, made once and for ever for the sins of the whole world. But spiritually every one of us is a priest. And there is not a believer who has not a sacrifice to offer: himself, his heart, his life, his soul, his body, his lips.
J. Vaughan, Sermons, 10th series, p. 173.
References: Hos 14:3.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxviii., No. 1695. Hos 14:4.—Ibid., vol. ix., No. 501, vol. xvi., No. 920; Ibid., Morning by Morning, p. 296. Hos 14:4-8.—Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. xii., p. 203.
Hos 14:5
This is a gracious promise to a penitent and returning people. Israel had fallen by her iniquity; but "He who pardoneth iniquity, transgression, and sin" had earnestly exhorted her to arise and return by repentance and righteousness to Himself; to take with her words of humble confession, of earnest entreaty, of renewed covenant engagement, of grateful, loving trust, and of solemn vow and promise for the future. And it is on the supposition that that gracious exhortation has been laid to heart that the Lord comes forth with abundant and adapted promises, among them the promise of the text.
I. The dew falls very quietly and gently. So is God to. His people when He comes to revive and bless them. The soul must have times of recruiting and replenishment, and probably times of silence. The filling of the hidden springs, the growing of the secret inward strength, will be, the "man knoweth not how," as is the growing of the flowers, as is the falling of the dew.
II. The dew falls very copiously. In the land of Israel it falls much more abundantly than in this country. God’s grace to a Church in a time of spiritual quickening is very copious and full. When hearts are opened to Him in expectation they never close again in collapse and disappointment.
III. The dew is very refreshing. It makes dying nature live. When God comes in fulfilment of this promise there is a recovery of sinking strength, a kindling of dying graces, a returning to the first love, a doing of the first works. To those who are so visited there is a newness in religion every day.
IV. The dew is fertilizing. This silent, copious, refreshing agent works fruitfulness out of all growing things. And when God is as the dew unto Israel, His final end is that the plants of His right hand’s planting may become fruitful.
V. Note, as another analogy, the nearness to us in both cases of the reviving influence—God does not fetch the dew from stars, or from fountains in the skies. He condenses and distils it out of the atmosphere. May not this remind us how we are surrounded with a very atmosphere of grace, which holds all precious things in readiness to be dropped upon us when God shall command it so? The word of life is "nigh unto us," as near the soul as the atmosphere is to the body.
A. Raleigh, Quiet Resting Places, p. 23.
Reference: Hos 14:5.—Preacher’s Lantern, vol. ii., p. 634.
Hos 14:5-6
I God begins: "I will be as the dew unto Israel." Of dew we may notice several things. (1) It is beautiful and glistening; but the process by which it is formed, and the way by which it comes, are hidden from us,—as behind a veil, in mystery. (2) Dew is always proportionate. The greater the need, the larger the supply; the hotter the day, the thicker it lies; and by refreshing where it falls it tends to vitality and growth. (3) And it comes faithfully, morning and evening, wherever it is wanted, and never fails. That is like God. How the Holy Spirit distils upon us, or why, we cannot tell. The commencement of the Divine life and its supplies are perfectly inscrutable. The workings are secret, but the results are patent. And just as I want it, I find it. It comes fullest in the morning of our hottest conflicts, and the fiercer and most searching days of trial have their richest drops. At evening what is the most worked is the most renovated. And without it all the soul’s verdure and all the soul’s life would wither and die.
II. Now trace the consequences on the man himself. The metaphor is sustained. It is by the dewlike, gentle workings of God’s Spirit, by myriads of drops, each imperceptibly small. "He shall grow as the lily and cast forth his roots as Lebanon," etc. There are five things: growth, strength, expansion, beauty, fragrance.
III. They that dwell under His shadow shall return. We all cast our shadows; and the influence we carry, the effect we produce,—may be, and should be, and must be, always for good and for God. And this is the characteristic of the Christian, that "they that dwell under his shadow shall return"—return to what they have lost: return to peace; return to that good land; return to Canaan; return to their God.
J. Vaughan, Sermons, 10th series, p. 181.
Hosea’s picture of what the state of Israel would be, in returning to righteousness and becoming reconciled to heaven, is composed—curiously and daintily composed—of rich colours, drawn from various sources. To his glowing anticipation, no single image sufficed to represent the approaching glory. For an adequate portrayal of the brilliant prospect which his eyes beheld, he had to borrow and cull from this quarter and that—to gather and combine many things—selecting here a little and there a little, and binding the medley together, in one. And it is his eclecticism here that I find inviting and suggestive; his free flitting from object to object, in order to collect materials for an image of perfection.
I. It reminds me of what we need to recognize and act upon, both in the intercourse of life and in the pursuit of truth. No man is worth accepting wholly, and every man has a grace and glory of his own that is worth searching out. See on the one hand, how we renounce and shut ourselves up from canine, snarling, disagreeable people as though there were no lingering lines of beauty in them with which to cultivate acquaintance. See on the other hand, our tendency to hero-worship; to insulate and set up on high and warn off criticism from the man who has shown himself grand and supreme in two or three points, or perhaps in a single quality: how we foolishly assume him to be equally grand and supreme all round on all sides. What is needed is, that we should be more ready and quick to discern the special grace, and the consequent essentialness, of every unit in the crowd, and less ready and quick to confine ourselves to any.
II. The perfect man is here, but not to be brought together and expressed in any single personality. We can approximate towards securing the benefit and use of him by association, uniting in work, study, and intercourse, what we each have—our various distinctive characters and attainments. Instances of this may be seen in politics, in Church fellowship, in differing religious views. What we need in order to a growing discernment of the universe of spiritual truth among us is, comprehension—the comprehension within our circle of intercourse, of as many visions and impressions of earnest brother-souls as possible.
S. A. Tipple, Echoes of Spoken Words, p. 187.
References: Hos 14:5-7.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. vi., No. 342; Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. xxii., 348. Hos 14:7.—J. Keble, Sermons for Holy Week, p. 163. Hos 14:8.—A. Maclaren, Contemporary Pulpit, vol. iii., p. 159; Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxiii., No. 1339; vol. x., No. 557; Ibid., Morning by Morning, p. 252. Hos 14:9.—J. M. Gibson, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxxii., p. 344.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren1905 · Public DomainOn v1Hos 14:1 - Hos 14:9.
Hosea
ISRAEL RETURNING
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Hos 14:1 - Hos 14:9.
Hosea is eminently the prophet of divine love and of human repentance. Both streams of thought are at their fullest in this great chapter. In Hos 14:1 - Hos 14:3 the very essence of true return to God is set forth in the prayer which Israel is exhorted to offer, while in Hos 14:4 - Hos 14:8 the forgiving love of God and its blessed results are portrayed with equal poetical beauty and spiritual force. Hos 14:9 closes the chapter and the book with a kind of epilogue.
I. The summons to repentance.
‘Israel,’ of course, here means the Northern Kingdom, with which Hosea’s prophecies are chiefly occupied. ‘Thou hast fallen by thine iniquity’-that is the lesson taught by all its history, and in a deeper sense it is the lesson of all experience. Sin brings ruin for nations and individuals, and the plain teachings of each man’s own life exhort each to ‘return unto the Lord.’ We have all proved the vanity and misery of departing from Him; surely, if we are not drawn by His love, we might be driven by our own unrest, to go back to God.
The Prophet anticipates the clear accents of the New Testament call to repentance in his expansion of what he meant by returning. He has nothing to say about sacrifices, nor about self-reliant efforts at moral improvement. ‘Take with you words,’ not ‘the blood of bulls and goats.’ Confession is better than sacrifice. What words are they which will avail? Hosea teaches the penitent’s prayer. It must begin with the petition for forgiveness, which implies recognition of the petitioner’s sin. The cry, ‘Take away all iniquity,’ does not specify sins, but masses the whole black catalogue into one word. However varied the forms of our transgressions, they are in principle one, and it is best to bind them all into one ugly heap, and lay it at God’s feet. We have to confess not only sins, but sin, and the taking away of it includes divine cleansing from its power, as well as divine forgiveness of its guilt. Hosea bids Israel ask that God would take away all iniquity; John pointed to ‘the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.’ But beyond forgiveness and cleansing, the penitent heart will seek that God would ‘accept the good’ in it, which springs up by His grace, when the evil has been washed from it, like flowers that burst from soil off which the matted under-growth of poisonous jungle has been cleared. Mere negative absence of ‘evil’ is not all that we should desire or exhibit; there must be positive good; and however sinful may have been the past, we are not too bold when we ask and expect that we may be made able to produce ‘good,’ which shall be fragrant as sweet incense to God.
Petitions are followed by vows. On the one hand, the experience of forgiveness and cleansing will put a new song in our mouths, and instead of animal sacrifices, we shall render the praise which is better than ‘calves’ laid on the altar. Perhaps the Septuagint rendering of that difficult phrase ‘the calves of our lips,’ which is given in Heb 13:15, ‘the fruit of our lips,’ is preferable. In either case, the same thought appears-that the penitent’s experience of forgiving and restoring love makes ‘the tongue of the dumb sing,’ and it will bind men’s hearts more closely to God than anything besides can do, so that their old inclinations to false reliances and idolatries drop away from them. The old fable tells us that the storm made the traveller wrap his cloak closer round him, but the sunshine made him throw it off. Judgments often make men cling more closely to their sins, but forgiving mercy makes them ‘cast off the works of darkness.’ The men who had experienced that in God, the Israel, which by its sins had brought down the punishment of His repudiation of being its father {Hos 1:9}, had found mercy, would no longer feel temptation to turn to Assyria for help, nor to seek protection from Egypt’s cavalry, nor to debase their manhood by calling stocks and stones, the work of their own hands, their gods. What earthly sweetness will tempt, or what earthly danger will affright, the heart that is feeling the bliss of union with God? Would Judas’s thirty pieces of silver attract the disciple reclining on Jesus’ bosom? We are most firmly bound to God, not by our resolves, but by our experience of His all-sufficient mercy. Fill the heart with that wine of the kingdom, and bitter or poisonous draughts will find no entrance into the cup.
II. God’s welcoming answer.
The very abruptness of its introduction, without any explanation as to the speaker, suggests how swiftly and joyfully the Father hastens to meet the returning prodigal while he is yet afar off. Like pent-up waters rushing forth as soon as a barrier is taken away, God’s love pours itself out immediately. His answer ever gives more than the penitent asks-robe and ring and shoes, and a feast to him who dared not expect more than a place among the hired servants. He gives not by drops, but in floods, answering the prayer for the taking away of iniquity by the promise to heal backsliding, going beyond desires and hopes in the gift of love which asks for no recompense, is drawn forth by no desert, but wells up from the depths of God’s heart, and strengthens the new, tremulous trust of the penitent by the assurance that every trace of anger is effaced from God’s heart.
The blessings consequent on the gift of God’s love are described in lovely imagery, drawn, like Hosea’s other abundant similes, from nature, and especially from trees and flowers. The source of all fruitfulness is a divine influence, which comes silently and refreshing as the ‘dew,’ or, rather, as the ‘night mist,’ a phenomenon occurring in Palestine in summer, and being, accurately, rolling masses of vapour brought from the Mediterranean, which counteract the dry heat and keep vegetation alive. The influences which refresh and fructify our souls must fall in many a silent hour of meditation and communion. They will effloresce into manifold shapes of beauty and fruitfulness, of which the Prophet signalises three. The lily may stand for beauty of purity, though botanists differ as to the particular flower meant. Christians should present to the world ‘whatsoever things are lovely,’ and see to it that their goodness is attractive. But the fragrant, pure lily has but shallow roots, and beauty is not all that a character needs in this world of struggle and effort. So there are to be both the lily’s blossom and roots like Lebanon. The image may refer to the firm buttresses of the widespread foot-hills, from which the sovereign summits of the great mountain range rise, or, as is rather suggested by the accompanying similes from the vegetable world, it may refer to the cedars growing there. Their roots are anchored deep and stretch far underground; therefore they rear towering heads, and spread broad shelves of dark foliage, safe from any blast. Our lives must be deep rooted in God if they are to be strong. Boots generally spread beneath the soil about as far as branches extend above it. There should be at least as much underground, ‘hid with Christ in God,’ as is visible to the world.
But beauty and strength are not all. So Hosea thinks of yet another of the characteristic growths of Palestine, the olive, which is not strikingly beautiful in form, with its strangely gnarled, contorted stem, its feeble branches, and its small, pointed, pale leaves, but has the beauty of fruitfulriess, and is green when other trees are bare. Such ‘beauty’ should be ours, and will be if the ‘dew’ falls on us.
In Hos 14:7 there are difficulties, both as to the application of the ‘his,’ and as to the reading and rendering of some of the words. But the general drift is clear. It prolongs the tones of the foregoing verses, keeping to the same class of images, and expressing fruitfulness, abundant as the corn and precious as the grape, and fragrance like the ‘bouquet’ of the choicest wine.
Hos 14:8 offers great difficulties on any interpretation. The supplement ‘shall say’ is questionable, and it is doubtful whether Ephraim is the speaker at all, and whether, if so, he speaks all the four clauses, and who speaks any or all of them, if not he. To the present writer, it seems best to take the supplement as right, and possible to regard the whole verse as spoken by Ephraim, though perhaps the last clause is meant to be God’s utterance. The meaning will then come out as follows. The penitent Israel again speaks, after the gracious promises preceding. The tribal name is, as usual in Hosea, equivalent to Israel, whose penitent cry we heard at the beginning of the passage. Now we hear his glad response to God’s abundant answer. ‘What have I to do any more with idols?’ He had vowed {Hos 14:3} to have no more to do with them, and the resolve is deepened by the rich grace held forth to him. Hosea had lamented Ephraim’s mad adherence to ‘his idols’ {Hos 4:17}, but now the union is dissolved, and by penitence and reception of God’s grace, he is joined to the Lord, and parted from them. His renunciation of idolatry is based, in the second clause, on his experience of what God can do, and on his having heard God’s gracious voice of pardon and promise. If a man hears God, he will not be drawn to worship at any idol’s shrine.
Further, in the third clause, Ephraim is joyfully conscious of the change that has passed on him, in accordance with the great promises just spoken, and with grateful astonishment that such verdure should have burst out from the dry and rotten stump of his own sinful nature, exclaims, ‘I am like a green fir-tree.’ That is another reason why he will have no more to do with idols. They could never have made his sapless nature break into leafage. But what of the fourth clause-’From Me is thy fruit found’? Can we understand that to mean that Ephraim still speaks, keeping up the image of the previous clause, and declaring that all the new fruitfulness which he finds in himself he recognises to be God’s, both in the sense that, in reality, it is produced by Him, and that it belongs to Him? He comes seeking fruit, and He finds it. All our good is His, and we shall be happy, productive, and wise, in proportion as we offer all our works to Him, and feel that, after all, they are not ours, but the works of that Spirit which dwells in penitent and believing hearts. Some have thought that this last clause must be taken as spoken by God; but, even if so taken, it conveys substantially the same thought as to the divine origin of man’s fruitfulness.
The last verse is rather a general reflection summing up the whole than an integral part of this wonderful representation of penitence, pardon, and fruitfulness. It declares the great truth that the knowledge of the pardoning mercy of God, and of the ways by which He weans men from sin and makes them fruitful of good, makes us truly wise. That knowledge is more than intellectual apprehension; it is experience. Providence has its mysteries, but they who keep near to God, and are ‘just’ because they do, will find the opportunity of free, unfettered activity in God’s ways, and transgressors will stumble therein. Therefore wisdom and safety lie in penitence and confession, which will ever be met by gracious pardon and showers of blessing that will cause our hearts, which sin has made desert, to rejoice and blossom like the rose.
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow1909 · Public DomainOn v1Israel will Surely Repent and be Forgiven
Israel will Surely Repent and be Forgiven
Hosea makes a touching final appeal for repentance. He assures Israel of God's mercy, and closes with a description of the blessings that will follow the renewal of His favour.
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2. Take.. words] go to Him, prepared to confess your sins. Receive us graciously] RV 'accept that which is good,' i.e. what is good in us, in contrast to the iniquity which God is asked to take away. Render] i.e. offer. The calves.. lips] better, 'our lips as bullocks'—that sacrifice of penitence which is outwardly expressed not in the sacrifice of animals, but in confession of sin: cp. Psa_51:17.
3. Israel would no longer depend upon the help either of foreign powers or of the idols, but trust in Jehovah, the helper of the fatherless.
5. Dew] a frequent metaphor to express spiritual blessing: cp. Deu_32:2. The paucity of rain made the land dependent on frequent and heavy dews: cp. 1Ki_17:1. Grow] RV 'blossom.'
6. Olive] the emblem of fatness and fertility.
8. This v. passes into a sort of dialogue between Ephraim and God. Thus:
Ephraim. What have I to do any more with idols? i.e. I will in future have nothing more to do with them.
Jehovah. (RV) 'I have answered, and will regard him,' i.e. I have heard his prayer, and will answer it.
Ephraim. I am like a green fir tree] I am strong and prosperous.
Jehovah. From me is thy fruit found, i.e. do not in prosperity once more forget that it comes from Me: cp. Joh_15:4.
9. A general reflection on the teaching of the book, which cannot be understood except by the wise and prudent, but in the end will be found to be true wisdom: cp. Psa_107:43. This epilogue may have been added at a later date, to point the moral of the whole book.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein1922 · Public DomainOn v1The Return and the Glorious Redemption
CHAPTER 14
The Return and the Glorious Redemption
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1. The exhortation to return (Hos 14:1-3)
2. The glorious redemption (Hos 14:4-9)
Hos 14:1-3. This chapter is a wonderful finale to the messages of Hosea. What tender entreaties! What gracious assurance! What glorious promises of a future redemption! it is Jehovah beseeching His people, those who had forsaken Him, outraged His character of holiness and who had despised Him. First is the call to return. God’s hands are tied as long as His people stay away from Him and do not return to Him in true repentance. No true salvation and deliverance for His people is possible without a true heart return unto Him. It is this for which He looks and waits.
Then the Lord Himself puts His word and a prayer into their mouth. He loves to provide all. “Take with you words and turn to Jehovah and say unto Him, Forgive all iniquity, and receive us graciously, so will we render the calves of our lips.” Could their poor, darkened and mistrusting hearts ever even have imagined to ask thus of Him? Their consciences were defiled; the burden of guilt was upon them. But Jehovah does not mention their sins and their guilt, but tells them just to pray for forgiveness and for a gracious reception. And He who tells His wayward people to pray, to turn to Him, to pray for forgiveness, He who assures them that He hears, assures them of a gracious receiving, will never fail. How full of comfort these sentences are to all His people at all times! We can imagine that in Hosea’s day there were individual Israelites who took these words to heart. After them generations of Jews read them and turned individually to the Lord, found forgiveness and became the objects of His grace. And we too, as His people, when we have gone back in our spiritual life, can find our comfort here, and appropriate all this in faith as we act upon His Word. In the future the remnant of Israel will take these gracious exhortations to heart, and before the glorious redemption is given to them return to the Lord with this prayer.
“So will we render the calves of our lips.” Literally rendered it is “we will pay as young oxen our lips,” i.e., present the prayers of our lips as a thank offering; we will be worshippers. Such is the result of a real return unto the Lord with sins forgiven and restored to His fellowship. The days of singing are coming for Israel in that day when they return unto Him and He appears in His glory to be enthroned as King. It will usher in the singing times for all the world, including groaning creation, then delivered. Then follows the evidence of their genuine repentance. It is expressed in words suited to the condition of Ephraim in Hosea’s day. They repudiate Assyria; they acknowledge that no salvation is there, but only in Jehovah. No longer will they trust in their own strength and in the strength of their horses; no longer will they turn to idols and call them “Our God,” but they will acknowledge Him in whom the fatherless findeth mercy. Israel, God’s firstborn son, had been the prodigal, was fatherless, though the Father’s love never gave them up. But now the prodigal returns and knows there is One in whom the fatherless findeth abundant mercy. All this true repentance will be manifested at the close of this age, when the remnant of Israel turns to the Lord.
Hos 14:4-9. His gracious answer to such repentance follows. Three times Jehovah speaks “I will.” This is the word of sovereign grace. (See annotations on Ezekiel.) The three “I wills” are: (1) I will heal their backslidings; (2) I will love them freely; (3) I will be a dew unto Israel. They are arranged in a most blessed order. Mercy, love and gracious refreshment resulting in fruitfulness and beauty, such is the order. The past is wiped out, the present is love and the future is glory. Like the lily, like Lebanon and like the olive-tree, Israel is to be. The lily denotes beauty; they will be clad in the beauty of holiness. Lebanon stands for strength and stability; they will become the nation of power which can never be moved. Then they shall be once more the olive tree; the broken off branches will be put back Rom 11:16, etc.). The blessings of the restored Israel in the millennium are given in the seventh verse.
Beautiful is Hos 14:8. “Ephraim (shall say), ‘What have I to do any more with idols? I hear and I look upon Him; I am like a green fir tree. From Me is thy fruit found.’“ Ephraim, the cake half turned, Ephraim, of whom it was said, he is joined to idols, leave him alone, now repudiates the idols. And why? I hear and I look upon Him! The vision of the Lord turned the stubborn heart. It is so still; the great power is to hear Him, to look upon Him. In that day Israel will look on Him whom they pierced, the great turning point in their future history. Then the nation will yield the fruit through their fellowship with Him. Blessed ending of this prophecy. “For the ways of Jehovah are right, and the just shall walk in them; but the transgressors shall fall therein.”
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann1924 · Public DomainOn v1A Final Exhortation to Return, with a Promise of…
A Final Exhortation to Return, with a Promise of Redemption.
After having shown the apostate Israelites in various ways in what their guilt consisted, the Lord here once more appeals to them to return to Him in true repentance, since He desires to show them His mercy in full measure.
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v. 1. O Israel, return unto the Lord, thy God, to the God of the Messianic covenant; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity, but there is still a possibility of returning.
v. 2. Take with you words, expressed in prayers of forgiveness, and turn to the Lord; say unto Him, in a full and frank confession of sins, Take away all iniquity, forgiving the transgression with its guilt, and receive us graciously, receiving the one good thing which they have to offer; so will we render the calves of our lips, literally, "and we will render as bullocks our lips," namely, the confession of guilt and the promise to amend their ways.
v. 3. Asshur, the world-power upon which they had relied till then, shall not save us; we will not ride upon horses, depending upon their cavalry, their army; neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, the idols which they had molded and fashioned. Ye are our gods, this being an open confession of the vanity of their idolatrous practices; for in Thee, in the true God alone, the fatherless findeth mercy. Cf Exo 22:22; Deu 10:18. In the entire prayer of repentance the trust in the mercy of the Lord is evident. The Lord’s answer, therefore, is a wonderful promise of mercy.
v. 4. I will heal their backsliding, all the calamities brought upon them by their unfaithfulness to the Lord; I will love them freely, with the fullness of His abundant love and mercy; for Mine anger is turned away from him, having readily been withdrawn at the evidence of real sorrow which their prayer showed.
v. 5. I will be as the dew unto Israel, refreshing and strengthening; he shall grow as the lily, known for its fruitfulness, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon, the mountains having their foundations in the innermost recesses of the earth.
v. 6. His branches shall spread, as he nourishes and develops with vigorous life, and his beauty shall be as the olive-tree, with its evergreen leaves and rich-gleaming fruit, and his smell as Lebanon, with its cedars and aromatic shrubs. So the attributes of firmness, of fruitfulness, of beauty and glory, and of amiability and loveliness are ascribed to the repentant people once more received into the grace of God.
v. 7. They that dwell under His shadow, the members of Israel as they have turned to the Lord in repentance, shall return, they shall revive as the corn, rather, shall produce grain once more, be a soil fruitful in good works, and grow as the vine, the scent thereof shall be as the vine of Lebanon, which was known of old for its excellent flavor.
v. 8. Ephraim shall say, in addressing the Lord, What have I to do any more with idols? Or the sentence may be considered as an appeal to Ephraim to renounce all idolatry. I have heard him and observed him, Jehovah regarding His people with favor; I am like a green fir-tree, a cypress, symbol of everlasting life; from Me is thy fruit found, it is the Lord’s strength which nourishes the bodily and spiritual strength of His people.
v. 9. Who is wise, and he shall understand these things? namely, all that the prophet has written by way of warning, rebuke, admonition, and correction; prudent, and he shall know them? For the ways of the Lord, particularly in the manner in which He deals with His children on earth, are right, and the just shall walk in them, finding their delight in doing the Lord’s will; but the transgressors shall fall therein. Cf Deu 32:4. The preaching of truth is to some a savor of life unto life, to others a savor of death unto death. Cf Deu 30:19-20; 1Co 1:18.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0On vv1, 3General Information:
General Information:
Hosea the prophet is speaking.
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for you have fallen because of your iniquity
Sinning is spoken of here as if it were falling. (See: Metaphor)
Take with you words
This probably means words of confession and praise. AT: "Confess your sins" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
the fruit of our lips
What a person says is called the fruit of his lips. Modern versions have different translations of this difficult passage. AT: "our words and songs of praise" (See: Metonymy)
Tyndale Open Study Notes2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0On vv1–314:1-9 Destruction was not God’s last word to his…
14:1-9 Destruction was not God’s last word to his covenant people. Although judgment must come, God’s healing, restoring grace is always more powerful than human sin.
GEBible — Godless Engineer's Bible App
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv1–3 Here the Prophet exhorts the Israelites to repentance, and…
Here the Prophet exhorts the Israelites to repentance, and still propounds some hope of mercy. But this may seem inconsistent as he had already testified that there would be no remedy any more, because they had extremely provoked God. The Prophet seems in this case to contradict himself. But the solution is ready at hand, and it is this, — In speaking before of the final destruction of the people, he had respect to the whole body of the people; but now he directs his discourse to the few, who had as yet remained faithful. And this distinction, as we have reminded you in other places, ought to be carefully noticed; otherwise we shall find ourselves perplexed in many parts of Scripture. We now then see for what purpose the Prophet annexed this exhortation, after having asserted that God would be implacable to the people of Israel; for with regard to the whole body, there was no hope of deliverance; God had now indeed determined to destroy them, and he wished this to be made known to them by the preaching of Hosea. But yet God had ever some seed remaining among his chosen people: though the body, as a whole, was putrid and corrupt; yet some sound members remained, as in a large heap of chaff some grains may be found concealed. As God then had preserved some (as he is wont always to do,) he sets forth to them his mercy: and as they had been carried away, as it were by a tempest, when iniquity so prevailed among the people, that there was nothing sound, the Prophet addresses them here, because they were not wholly incurable.
Let us then know that the irreclaimable, the whole body of the people, are now dismissed; for they were so obstinate that the Prophet could address them with no prospect of success. Then his sermon here ought to be especially applied to the elect of God, who, having fallen away for a time, and become entangled in the common vices of the age, were yet not altogether incurable. The Prophet now exhorts them and says Return, Israel, to Jehovah thy God; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity This reason is added, because men will never repent unless they are made humble; and whence comes true and genuine humility, except from a sense of sin? Unless then men become displeased with themselves, and acknowledge that they are worthy of perdition, they will never be touched by a genuine feeling of penitence. These two things are then wisely joined together by Hosea, that Israel had fallen by their iniquities, and then, that it was time to return to Jehovah. How so? Because, when we are convinced that we are worthy of destruction, nays that we are already doomed to death for having so often provoked God, then we begin to hate ourselves; and a detestation of sin drives us to seek repentance.
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But he says, Turn thou, Israel, to thy God The Prophet now kindly invites them; for he could not succeed by severe words without mingling a hope of favour, as we know that there can be no hope of repentance without faith. Then the Prophet not only shows what was necessary to be done, but says also, ‘Thou art Israel, thou art an elect people.’ He does not, however, as it has been already stated, address all indiscriminately, but those who were the true children of Abraham, though they had for a time degenerated. “Turn thou, Israel, then to thy God; for how much soever thou hast for a time fallen away, yet God has not rejected thee: only return to him, and thou shalt find favour, for he is placable to his own people.”
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv2–3 He exhorteth them to repentance to avoid all these…
He exhorteth them to repentance to avoid all these plagues, willing them to declare by words their obedience and repentance.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–3 Hos 14:1 O Israel, return unto the LORD thy…
Hos 14:1 O Israel, return unto the LORD thy God; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity.
Ver. 1. O Israel, return unto the Lord] Usque ad Dominum, all the way to God, as far as to the Lord: give not the half, but the whole turn; and take it for a mercy that you are yet called upon to return, and may be received; "that yet there is hope in Israel concerning this thing," Ezr 10:2. All the former part of the prophecy had been mostly denunciations; this last chapter is wholly consolatory; the Sun of Righteousness loves not to set in a cloud.
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Return unto the Lord thy God] He is yet thy God: no such argument for our turning to God as his turning to us, Zec 1:3. See the note there. Tantum velis et Deus tibi praeoccurret. If ye be willing and obedient ye shall eat, &c. The father’s plenty brought home the prodigal; he had but a purpose to return, and his father met him, Isa 65:24. See Joe 2:12-13 Isa 55:6-7 Jer 31:18 Hos 3:5 Act 2:38. This is the use we should make of mercy. Say not, He is my God, therefore I may presume upon him; but, he is mine, therefore I must return unto him. Argue from mercy to duty, and not to liberty, for that is the devil’s logic, which the apostle holds unreasonable, yea, to a good heart impossible, Rom 6:1-2. His mercy is bounded with his truth, with which it therefore goes commonly coupled in Scripture. It is a sanctuary for the penitent, but not for the presumptuous.
For thou hast fallen by thine iniquity] i.e. "Consumption is decreed, yet a remnant reserved," Isa 10:22-23. Thou hast fallen into great calamity, and that by thine iniquity, which puts a sting into thy misery. This it is fit thou shouldst be sensible of; for conviction is the first step to conversion. But if thou art fallen, wilt thou there lie and not rise again by repentance, and return to him that smiteth thee? wilt thou not submit to his justice, and implore his mercy? Here, then, is another motive to conversion; as indeed this verse abounds with arguments to that purpose, Pareus well observeth. First, thou art a prince of God, who hath greatly graced thee above all people: return to him therefore. 2. Thou hast run away from him by thine iniquity; and turned upon him the back, and not the face: return therefore. 3. He is the author of thy being and well-being. 4. He is God, to whom thou must either turn or burn for ever: aut poenitendum, aut pereundum; he can fetch in his rebels. 5. He is thy God in covenant with thee, and will accept of pence for pounds, desires for deeds, sincerity for perfection. 6. Thou hast fallen by thine iniquity; and yet wilt fall farther, and never rise again, as Amo 8:14, if thou stop not, step not back by repentance, and stir up thyself to take hold of God.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv1–3 O Israel, you that are the true Israel of…
O Israel, you that are the true Israel of God, you that are the remnant amidst so great a body of incurable rebels, return; repent ye thoroughly, not hypocritically, turn ye from all your sins in which with others you have been defiled, and turn to
the Lord, the everlasting, living God, who is worthy to be worshipped and obeyed; your idols were never worth your love, but the Lord, the Fountain of being and life, is worthy of it. Turn to him as
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thy God, in covenant with thee, to get pardon for past sins according to covenant promise, to renew covenant for time to come, and to engage thyself sincerely and heartily to be his people.
For thou hast fallen; thy sins against the Lord thy God have enkindled his wrath against thee, have involved thee in endless troubles, have turned thy prosperity into extreme adversity; sin hath cast thee from the height of glory to the depth of reproach and contempt, thus thou art fallen.
By thine iniquity: it is the singular number, either because all their sins were so linked together they were as one huge mass of sin, or it refers particularly to their idolatry, which is by way of eminency, and above any one other sin a falling from God, and here punished with a fall into calamities.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On v1 Here we have,
Here we have,
I. A kind invitation given to sinners to repent, Hos 14:1. It is directed to Israel, God's professing people. They are called to return. Note, Conversion must be preached even to those that are within the pale of the church as well as to heathen. "Thou are Israel, and therefore art bound to thy God in duty, gratitude, and interest; thy revolt from him is so much the more heinous, and thy return to him so much the more necessary." Let Israel see, 1. What work he has made for repentance: "Thou has fallen by thy iniquity." Thou has stumbled; so some read it. Their idols were their stumbling-blocks. "Thou has fallen from God into sin, fallen off from all good, fallen down under the load of guilt and the curse." Note, Sin is a fall; and it concerns those that have fallen by sin to get up again by repentance. 2. What work he has to do in his repentance: "Return to the Lord thy God; return to him as the Lord whom thou has a dependence upon, as thy God, thine in covenant, whom thou has an interest in." Note, It is the great concern of those that have revolted from God to return to God, and so to do their first works. "Return to him from whom thou has fallen, and who alone is able to raise thee up. Return even to the Lord, or quite home to the Lord; do not only look to him, or take some steps towards him, but make thorough work of it." The ancient Jews had a saying grounded on this, Repentance is a great thing, for it brings men quite up to the throne of glory.
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II. Necessary instructions given them how to repent. 1. They must bethink themselves what to say to God when they come to him: Take with you words. They are required to bring, not sacrifices and offerings, but penitential prayers and supplications, the fruit of thy lips, yet not of the lips only, but of the heart, else words are but wind. One of the rabbin says, They must be such words as proceed from what is spoken first in the inner man; the heart must dictate to the tongue. We must take good words with us, by taking good thoughts and good affections with us. Verbaque praevisam rem non invita sequentur - Those who master a subject are seldom at a loss for language. Note, When we come to God we should consider what we have to say to him; for, if we come without an errand, we are likely to go without an answer. Ezr 9:10, What shall we say? We must take with us words from the scripture, take them from the Spirit of grace and supplication, who teaches us to cry, Abba, Father, and makes intercession in us. 2. They must bethink themselves what to do. They must not only take with them words, but must turn to the Lord; inwardly in their hearts, outwardly in their lives.
III. For their assistance herein, and encouragement, God is pleased to put words into their mouths, to teach them what they shall say. Surely we may hope to speed with God, when he himself has ordered our address to be drawn up ready to our hands, and his own Spirit has indited it for us; and no doubt we shall speed if the workings of our souls agree with the words here recommended to us. They are,
1. Petitioning words. Two things we are here directed to petition for: - (1.) To be acquitted from guilt. When we return to the Lord we must say to him, Lord, take away all iniquity. They were now smarting for sin, under the load of affliction, but are taught to pray, not as Pharaoh, Take away this death, but, Take away this sin. Note, When we are in affliction we should be more concerned for the forgiveness of our sins than for the removal of our trouble. "Take away iniquity, lift it off as a burden we are ready to sink under or as the stumbling-block which we have often fallen over. Lord, take it away, that it may not appear against us, to our confusion and condemnation. Take it all away by a free and full remission, for we cannot pretend to strike any of it off by a satisfaction of our own." When God pardons sin he pardons all, that great debt; and when we pray against sin we must pray against it all and not except any. (2.) To be accepted as righteous in God's sight: "Receive us graciously. Let us have thy favour and love, and have thou respect to us and to our performances. Receive our prayer graciously; be well pleased with that good which by thy grace we are enabled to do." Take good (so the word is); take it to bestow upon us, so the margin reads it - Give good. This follows upon the petition for the taking away of iniquity; for, till iniquity is taken away, we have no reason to expect any good from God, but the taking away of iniquity makes way for the conferring of good removendo prohibens - by taking that out of the way which hindered. Give good; they do not say what good, but refer themselves to God; it is not good of the world's showing (Psa 4:6), but good of God's giving. "Give good, that good which we have forfeited, and which thou has promised, and which the necessity of our case calls for." Note, God's gracious acceptance, and the blessed fruits and tokens of that acceptance, are to be earnestly desired and prayed for by us in our returning to God. "Give good, that good which will make us good and keep us from returning to iniquity again."
2. Promising words. These also are put into their mouths, not to move God, or to oblige him to show them mercy, but to move themselves, and oblige themselves to returns of duty. Note, Our prayers for pardon and acceptance with God should be always accompanied with sincere purposes and vows of new obedience. Two things they are to promise and vow: - (1.) Thanksgiving. "Pardon our sins, and accept of us, so will we render the calves of our lips." The fruit of our lips (so the Septuagint), a word they used for burnt-offerings, and so it agrees with the Hebrew. The apostle quotes this phrase (Heb 13:15), and by the fruit of our lips understands the sacrifice of praise to God, giving thanks to his name. Note, Praise and thanksgiving are our spiritual sacrifice, and, if they come from an upright heart, shall please the Lord better than an ox or bullock, Psa 69:30, Psa 69:32. And the sense of our pardon and acceptance with God will enlarge our hearts in praise and thankfulness. Those that are received graciously may, and must, render the calves of their lips - poor returns for rich receivings, yet, if sincere, more acceptable than the calves of the stall. (2.) Amendment of life. They are taught to promise, not only verbal acknowledgements, but a real reformation. And we are taught here, [1.] In our returns to God to covenant against sin. We cannot expect that God should take it away by forgiving it if we do not put it away by forsaking it. [2.] To be particular in our covenants and resolutions against sin, as we ought to be in our confession, because deceit lies in generals. [3.] To covenant especially and expressly against those sins which we have been most subject to, which have most easily beset us, and which we have been most frequently overcome by. We must keep ourselves from, and therefore must thus fortify ourselves against, our own iniquity, Psa 18:23. The sin they here covenant against, owning thereby that they had been guilty of it, is giving that glory to another which is due to God only; this they promise they will never do, First, By putting that confidence in creatures which should be put in God only. They will not trust to their alliances abroad: Asshur (that is, Assyria) shall not save us. "We will not court the help of the Assyrians when we are in distress, as we have done (Hos 5:13; Hos 7:11; Hos 8:9); we will not contract for it, nor will we confide in it, or depend upon it. Having a God to go to, a God all-sufficient to trust to, we scorn to be beholden to the Assyrians for help." They will not trust to their warlike preparations at home, especially not those which they were forbidden to multiply: "We will not ride upon horses, that is, we will not make court to Egypt," for thence they fetched their horses, Deu 17:16; Isa 30:16; Isa 31:1, Isa 31:3. "When our enemies invade us we will depend upon our God to succour our infantry, and will be in no care to remount our cavalry." Or, "We will not post on horseback, for haste, from one creature to another, to seek relief, but will take the nearest way, and the only sure way, by addressing ourselves to God," Isa 20:5. Note, True repentance takes us off from trusting to an arm of flesh, and brings us to rely on God only for all the good we stand in need of. Secondly, Nor will they do it by paying that homage to creatures which is due to God only. We will not say any more to the works of our hands, You are our gods. They must promise never to worship idols again, and for a good reason, because it is the most absurd and senseless thing in the world to pray to that as a god which is the work of our hands. We must promise that we will not set our hearts upon the gains of this world, nor pride ourselves in our external performances in religion, for that is, in effect, to say to the work of our hands, You are our gods.
3. Pleading words are here put into their mouths: For in thee the fatherless find mercy. We must take our encouragement in prayer, not from any merit God finds in us, but purely from the mercy we hope to find in God. This contains in itself a great truth, that God takes special care of fatherless children, Psa 68:4, Psa 68:5. So he did in his law, Exo 22:22. So he does in his providence, Psa 27:10. It is God's prerogative to help the helpless. In him there is mercy for such, for they are proper objects of mercy. In him they find it; there it is laid up for them, and there they must seek it; seek and you shall find. It comes in here as a good plea for mercy and grace and an encouraging one to their faith. (1.) They plead the distress of their state and condition: "We are fatherless orphans, destitute of help." Those may expect to find help in God that are truly sensible of their helplessness in themselves and are willing to acknowledge it. This is a good step towards comfort. "If we have not yet boldness to call God Father, yet we look upon ourselves as fatherless without him, and therefore lay ourselves at his feet, to be looked upon by him with compassion." (2.) They plead God's wonted lovingkindness to such as were in that condition: With thee the fatherless not only may find, but does find, and shall find, mercy. It is a great encouragement to our faith and hope, in returning to God, that it is his glory to father the fatherless and help the helpless.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv1–3 O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God,.... From…
O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God,.... From whom they had revolted and backslidden; whose worship and service they had forsaken, and whose word and ordinances they had slighted and neglected, and had served idols, and had given into idolatry, superstition, and will worship; and are here exhorted to turn again to the Lord by repentance and reformation, to abandon their idols, and every false way, and cleave to the Lord with full purpose of heart; and the rather, since he was their God; not only their Creator, Preserver, and kind Benefactor, but their God, by his special choice of them above all people; by his covenant with them; by his redemption of them; and by their profession of him; and who was still their God, and ready to receive them, upon their return to him: and a thorough return is here meant, a returning "even unto" (w), or quite up to the Lord thy God; it is not a going to him halfway, but a going quite up to his seat; falling down before him, acknowledging sin and backslidings, and having hold upon him by faith as their God, Redeemer, and Saviour: hence, from the way of speaking here used, the Jews (x) have a saying, as Kimchi observes,
"great is repentance, for it brings a man to the throne of glory;''
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the imperative may be here used for the future, as some take it; and then it is a prediction of the conversion of Israel, "thou shalt return, O Israel" (y); and which was in part fulfilled in the first times of the Gospel, which met with many of the Israelites dispersed among the Gentiles, and was the means of their conversion; and will have a greater accomplishment when all Israel shall be converted and saved:
for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity; or "though thou art fallen" (z); into sin, and by it into ruin, temporal and spiritual; from a state of great prosperity and happiness, both in things civil and religious, into great adversity, and calamities of every sort; yet return, repent, consider from whence thou art fallen, and by what; or thou shall return, be recovered and restored, notwithstanding thy fall, and the low estate in which thou art. The Targum is,
"return to the fear of the Lord.''
(w) "asque ad Dominum", Montanus, Tigurine version, Oecolampadius, Schmidt, Burkius. (x) T. Bab. Yoma, fol. 86. 1. (y) "revertere", i. e. "reverteris", Schmidt. (z) "etsi corruisti", Luther apud Tarnovium.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv1–3 Directions how to repent, ver. 1-3. Encouragements to repent,…
Directions how to repent, ver. 1-3. Encouragements to repent, ver. 4-9.
Fallen - Thy sins have involved thee in endless troubles.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1–2 By the terrible denunciation of vengeance which concludes the
CHAPTER XIV
By the terrible denunciation of vengeance which concludes the
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preceding chapter, the prophet is led to exhort Israel to
repentance, furnishing them with a beautiful form of prayer,
very suitable to the occasion, 1-3.
Upon which God, ever ready to pardon the penitent, is
introduced making large promises of blessings, in allusion to
those copious dews which refresh the green herbs, and which
frequently denote, not only temporal salvation, but also the
rich and refreshing comforts of the Gospel, 4-7.
Their reformation from idolatry is foretold, and their
consequent prosperity, under the emblem of a green flourishing
fir tree, 8;
but these promises are confined to those who may bring forth
the fruits of righteousness, and the wicked are declared to
have no share in them, 9.
NOTES ON CHAP. XIV
Verse 1. O Israel, return unto the Lord] These words may be considered as addressed to the people now in captivity; suffering much, but having still much more to suffer if they did not repent. But it seems all these evils might yet be prevented, though so positively predicted, if the people would repent and return; and the very exhortation to this repentance shows that they still had power to repent, and that God was ready to save them and avert all these evils. All this is easily accounted for on the doctrine of the contingency of events, i.e., the poising a multitude of events on the possibility of being and not being, and leaving the will of man to turn the scale; and that God will not foreknow a thing as absolutely certain, which his will has determined to make contingent. A doctrine against which some solemn men have blasphemed, and philosophic infidels declaimed; but without which fate and dire necessity must be the universal governors, prayer be a useless meddling, and Providence nothing but the ineluctable adamantine chain of unchangeable events; all virtue is vice, and vice virtue, or there is no distinction between them, each being eternally determined and unalterably fixed by a sovereign and uncontrollable will and unvarying necessity, from the operation of which no soul of man can escape, and no occurrence in the universe be otherwise than it is. From such blasphemy, and from the monthly publications which avouch it, good Lord, deliver us!
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv1, 3 Hos 14:1-2. O Israel, return unto the Lord thy…
Hos 14:1-2. O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God — O Israel, return now at length, after thou hast suffered so many evils, to the Lord by true repentance and reformation of conduct. The whole family of Israel, in both its branches, seems to be here addressed. For thou hast fallen — From God’s love and favour into his displeasure, and consequently into misery, by thine iniquity — Which has involved thee in endless troubles, and will be the cause of thy destruction. Take with you words — Make your confessions, present your petitions, and signify your promises and resolutions unto God, not only in your thoughts, but also by words well chosen and digested; sanctioned by the Holy Scriptures, and agreeable to the will of God. The prophet here prescribes a form of confession, petition, and supplication very proper to be used upon their repentance and conversion. It implies in substance, Confess your sins, entreat for pardon, and promise amendment. And turn to the Lord — In heart and life, in faith, love, and new obedience, otherwise your confessions and prayers will be to little purpose. Say, Take away all iniquity, &c. — Deliver us from the guilt and power of our sins, internal and external; take entirely away the sinful principle within us, the carnal heart of the old Adam. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me; and receive us graciously — Accept our persons and performances of thy mere grace and favour, thy unmerited mercy and love. But this clause may be rendered, Give us what is good; that is, bestow thy grace and blessing upon us: or, accept the good; that is, when we are begotten again unto holiness by thy Spirit, accept, as good, what we, thus regenerated, shall be enabled to perform. So will we render the calves of our lips — That is, the sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving uttered by our lips. By calling vocal devotions calves, (or bullocks, as Bishop Horsley renders the word פרים,) “is shown, that this form of supplication is prepared for those times, when animal sacrifices will be abolished, and prayer and thanksgiving will be the only offering.”
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv1–3 O Israel, return - (now, quite) unto the Lord…
O Israel, return - (now, quite) unto the Lord your God The heavy and scarcely interrupted tide of denunciation is now past. Billow upon billow have rolled over Ephraim and the last wave discharged itself in the overwhelming, indiscriminating destruction of the seat of its strength. As a nation, it was to cease to be. its separate existence was a curse, not a blessing; the offspring of rivalry, matured by apostasy; the parent, in its turn, of jealousy, hatred, and mutual vexation.
But while the kingdom was past and gone, the children still remained heirs of the promises made to their fathers. As then, before, Hosea declared that Israel, after having long remained solitary, should in the end “seek the Lord and David their king” Hos 3:5, so now, after these manifold denunciations of their temporal destruction, God not only invites them to repentance, but foretells that they should be wholly converted.
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Every word is full of mercy. God calls them by the name of acceptance, which he had given to their forefather, Jacob; “O Israel.” He deigns to beseech them to return; “return now;” and that not “toward” but “quite up to” Himself, the unchangeable God, whose mercies and promises were as immutable as His Being. To Himself, the Unchangeable, God invites them to return; trod that, as being still their God. They had cast off their God; God had “not cast off His people whom He foreknew” Rom 11:2.
: “He entreats them not only to turn back and look toward the Lord with a partial and imperfect repentance, but not to leave off until they were come quite home to Him by a total and sincere repentance and amendment.” He bids them “return quite to” Himself, the Unchangeable God, and their God. “Great is repentance,” is a Jewish saying , “which maketh men to reach quite up to the Throne of glory.”
For thou hast fallen by thine iniquity - “This is the first ray of divine light on the sinner. God begins by discovering to him the abyss into which he has fallen,” and the way by which he fell. Their own iniquity it was, on which they had stumbled and so had fallen, powerless to rise, except through “His” call, whose “voice is with power” Psa 29:4, and “Who giveth what He commandeth.” : “Ascribe not thy calamity,” He would say, “to thine own weakness, to civil dissension, to the disuse of miltary discipline, to want of wisdom in thy rulers, to the ambition and cruelty of the enemy, to reverse of fortune. These things had not gone against thee, hadst not thou gone to war with the law of thy God. Thou inflictest the deadly wound on thyself; thou destroyedst thyself. Not as fools vaunt, by fate, or fortune of war, but ‘by thine iniquity hast thou fallen.’ Thy remedy then is in thine own hand. ‘Return to thy God. ‘“
: “In these words, ‘by thine iniquity,” he briefly conveys, that each is to ascribe to himself the iniquity of all sin, of whatsoever he has been guilty, not defending himself, as Adam did, in whom we all, Jews and Gentiles, have sinned and fallen, as the Apostle says, ‘For we were by nature the children of wrath, even as others’ Eph 2:3. By adding actual, to that original, sin, Israel and every other nation falleth. He would say then, O Israel, be thou first converted, for thou hast need of conversion; ‘for thou hast fallen;” and confess this very thing, that ‘thou hast fallen by thine iniquity;’ for such confession is the beginning of conversion.”
But wherewith should he return?
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv1, 3 Perish, because she hath stirred up her God to…
Perish, because she hath stirred up her God to bitterness. It is not a curse or imprecation, but a prophecy of what should come to pass (Challoner) to Israel, in Assyria. Many such expressions occur, Psalm lxviii. 25., &c. (St. Jerome) --- Sometimes they are the efforts of zeal, conformable to divine justice, Psalm cxl. 6. (Worthington) --- Hebrew, "Samaria has sinned, or shall perish." (Calmet) --- Bitterness. Septuagint, "she hath resisted her God." (Haydock)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v1 3. Exhortation to Return: Promise of Complete Redemption.
3. Exhortation to Return: Promise of Complete Redemption.
Hosea 14
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1 Samaria will suffer punishment,1
Because she rebelled against her God;
They shall fall by the sword,
Their sucklings shall be dashed to pieces,
Their pregnant women2 shall be cut open.
2 Return, O Israel, to Jehovah, thy God,
For thou hast fallen through thy transgression.
3 Take with you words
And return to the Lord and say unto Him:
“Forgive all (our) iniquity3 and receive (what is) good [acceptable],
And we shall render unto thee our lips (as) oxen [as our sacrifices].
4 Assyria shall not help us, We will not ride upon horses,
We will no more say: our God, to the work of our hands,
(O Thou) in whom the orphan finds pity:”
5 I will heal their backsliding;
I will love them readily,4
For my anger is turned away from them.
6 I will be as the dew to Israel:
He shall bloom as the lily,
And shall strike his roots like Lebanon!5
7 His shoots shall go forth,
And his glory shall be like the olive,
And his fragrance like Lebanon!
8 Those that dwell under his shade shall revive [produce] corn once more.
And shall bloom as the vine,
His renown (shall be) like the wine of Lebanon.
9 O Ephraim, what have I to do any longer with idols?
I answer and regard [watch over] him.
I am like a green cypress;
With me is thy fruit found.
10 Who is wise, that he may understand these things?
Discerning, that he may know them?
For the ways of the Lord are direct,
And the righteous walk in them;
But transgressors stumble thereon.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Hos_14:1. Samaria shall make expiation, etc, תֶּאְשַׁם, from אָשָׁםַ, to make atonement, to suffer punishment. [Rendered in E. V.: shall be desolate, comp. the remarks in the Text. and Gram. Section.—M.] It is unnecessary to join this verse to Hosea 13, although it is naturally connected with it. The foregoing threatenings converge here first into the prophecy “concerning the destruction of Samaria because of its apostasy from its God,” and then upon this groundwork is based the exhortation to return, and the promise of renewed mercy conditioned upon repentance. [Henderson] “For the concluding portion of the verse, comp. 2Ki_8:12; 2Ki_15:16; Amo_1:13. That such cruelties were not unknown among other nations, see Iliad, 6:58, and Horace, Carm. 4 Od. 6.”—M.]
Hos_14:2. עַד יְהוָֹה, even unto Jehovah [literally: until, as far as, unto Jehovah.—M.]
Hos_14:3. Take with you words: They are not to come to Jehovah empty, but at the same time need take nothing more than words, no outward gifts. The words they are to use are now named, וְקַח טוֹב: and accept good, namely, what now follows: the sacrifices of the lips. [The true idea of the phrase seems to be: receive what is good, pleasing, acceptable. For this sense of טוב, comp. Num_24:1; Deu_6:18. I find the meaning of the passage admirably expressed by Ewald: “The people must first return to God’s love. The Prophet does not merely exhort them to this course; he shows them also in what manner it should be made; how and in what spirit the penitent are again to draw near to God’s favor; namely, not with outward, even though imposing sacrifices, with bulls, e.g., but with words, with the lips, i.e., with the living promises of the spirit that struggles after mercy and offers what is good.” The English expositors have, for the most part, followed the rendering of E. V.: and receive us graciously. Horsley (who is strangely opposed by Henderson “on the ground of philolgy”) and Pusey recognize and adopt the natural and true construction.—M.] Literally: and we will render as bullocks our lips, i.e., we will offer to thee for our sins the confession of our guilt and the promise of our return instead of sacrificial oxen (comp. Psa_51:17-19; Psa_69:31 f.; Psa_116:17; Psa_141:2).
Hos_14:4 follows immediately with such a vow, no longer to rely upon Assyria, no longer upon warlike power (horses) generally, no longer to serve idols, אֲשֶׁר בְּךָ: Thou, through whom, etc. Reliance upon God’s compassion is that upon which the whole prayer of penitence is based.
Hos_14:5. The promise of mercy follows as an answer to such a prayer of penitence. Heal their apostasy = the calamities which it has entailed. נְדָבָה [spontaneously] expresses God’s perfect readiness to bestow such love.
Hos_14:6 ff. The effects of this love of the Lord are rich blessings upon Israel: Jehovah Himself will become to Israel like a refreshing dew, and the consequences of this would be that they should bloom and strike root and send forth branches, or that they should flourish and develop a vigorous life. Like Lebanon, not simply like the cedars, but like the mountain itself, rooted as deeply and firmly. Like the olive [Hos_14:7] with its evergreen leaves and rich fruitage. His fragrance like Lebanon with its cedars and aromatic shrubs.
Hos_14:8. Here from Israel as a whole, compared to a tree, are distinguished the members of the people, as those who flourish vigorously beneath the shadow of the tree. יָשׁוּבוּ is to be joined with יְחַיּוּ in an adverbial sense=again. The latter word=live again, become fruitful. They themselves shall even become like a vine, producing wine as precious as that of Lebanon. O Ephraim! what have I still to do with idols? = I will have nothing more to do with idols, i.e., “I have now no longer to plead with thee on account of idols, as during the whole course of this prophecy Jehovah’s claims to honor as against idols have formed the predominant theme. This is all done away upon the ground on which this promise rests, that Israel has returned to the Lord” (Schmieder). I have answered and will regard him (Ephraim)=will concern myself, care for him. God lastly compares Himself to a green cypress. In Him the people are to find their fruit, i.e., the fruit which shall nourish them. [The English expositors, generally, adopt the rendering of the E. V., chiefly because the words of the first line do not seem to them suitable as uttered by God. But if they are held to assert that God would not have anything more to do with idols, would not come any longer into competition with idols for the affections of the people and so be brought into connection with them, they are seen to be suitable, and just what would be expected at the close of this book. And it would be altogether unnatural to introduce Ephraim as uttering this single exclamation in the midst of an extended passage in which God is the speaker. Finally, it is a most arbitrary principle which would require the insertion of the supplied words, or of any other, in a sentence in which the sense would be complete without an ellipsis. Manger carries such an unwarranted license to an extreme when he supposes that the whole verse forms a sort of dialogue, thus:—
Ephraim: What have I more to do with idols?
God: I have answered him and will regard him.
Ephraim: I am like a green cypress.
God: From me is thy Fruit found.
Upon this it is obvious to remark, that if the verse is a dialogue, and it were necessary to indicate who the speaker is in his first utterance, it would be just as necessary to give a similar intimation at the beginning of his next response.—M.]
Hos_14:9. Who is wise, etc. An epilogue to the whole Prophetic Book. אֵלֶּה refers to all that precedes, to the chidings and threatenings concerning sin and idolatry. For right are the ways of the Lord. This the crowning declaration, comp. Deu_32:4. The ways which God is said to follow are straight, i.e., direct, leading to the object. The righteous walk upon them, and are thereby righteous. But transgressors stumble thereon, i.e., they deviate from them, and are thereby transgressors, and at the same time the consequences of such deviation are recorded: they fall into ruin.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. It is clearly manifest here that the severe judgments announced as impending upon the kingdom of Israel have not their object in themselves, but are only means to an end. The kingdom in its present form must assuredly be destroyed, for it is utterly corrupt. But this is not to be done because God has turned Himself away from his people or desired to do so, or because his love for them is extinguished, but only because it is the only means of making room for something new, for the regeneration of his people.
2. Repentance, a return to God who had been forsaken, is to be the fruit of these judgments (comp. Hos_2:18-19), because it was their only design to lead to repentance, to make its necessity clear to the hearts of the people, and to prepare them for it through the severity of the wrath of God which they experienced, through their condition as “orphans” (Hos_14:4). The essential element of such a return was the prayer for forgiveness of guilt, involving both confession of and sorrow for sin, and in connection therewith the vow of a change of life. Rieger: “When the sinner resolves to return unto the Lord, the Spirit of Grace makes his soul willing. I said, I will confess my transgression to the Lord. O how good it is if only the sullen silence is broken and he begins to speak with God from a heart freed from deceit. The highest instance of the honor which he can give to God in sincerely returning to Him, is to reject all help in men which he had sought before, and all creaturely consolation, to sanctify God the Lord in his heart, and to seek mercy like a helpless orphan, as our Lord Jesus has shown us that we are all orphans, teaching us to seek our Father in Heaven, like orphans who have no father on earth.”
3. It is significant how “words” are emphasized as an expression of such repentance, and as explained by the contrast to “sacrifices,” literal offerings of animals, every external legal service. Such sacrifices are not needed; “words” are sufficient; these are the true sacrifices well pleasing to God; and yet they must be words that express a right state of mind within. (On the other hand it must be remembered that words are no guarantee of a freedom from outward lip-service.) It cannot be said with certainty from this brief remark, whether the Prophet contemplates the sacrifices as entirely done away, as in the expected time of the coming redemption. The main object is to speak of the return to God, and it is clear that he regards this as a going forth of the heart, which does not need the intervention of any sacrifice, and therefore as a prayerful and penitent approach to Him without the medium of an offering. The idea is certainly at once suggested that if mercy can be found without sacrifices, there is no need of them afterwards in the state of grace.
4. Such a return presupposes the restoration of God’s favor, which is manifested by the promise of a condition of rich blessing. On this promise a restoration into their own country is not indicated as a special element, although it is evidently assumed, as exile from their country is to be regarded as the punishment that was decreed, according to the threatenings of chaps. 9–11. The promise in our chapter presents, so to speak, the positive side, after the negative has been shown. Punishment shall not merely be taken away; blessing shall be restored to them, through which alone a return to their country is to be gained. From the fact, however, that here at the close of the Book such a return is not promised, it is to be inferred that in the picture of the future redemption which the Prophet sketches, such return is not of itself the most important element, i.e., the Prophecy looks beyond it and towards something greater connected with it, a complete manifestation of God’s favor to his people, which finds its expression in a state of rich and wondrous blessedness. This we designate the Messianic character of the prophetic promise. It is therefore clear that we are not to seek the fulfillment of this promise in premessianic time; apart from the consideration that it did not then appear. The Messiah Himself, according to the statement of the promise, did not accomplish it as consisting in the glorious bloom and vigor of the people; nor will He do so, simply because He has already brought a still higher disclosure of God’s mercy, and will yet introduce a more glorious display, in which the whole believing people of God will enjoy (outward and inward) blessedness, as the nation of Israel will no longer be the object of special favor.
5. The promise here made to the people of Israel, that of full bloom and prosperity, and vigor, through the influence of God’s grace—still chiefly in a temporal sense,—shall be fulfilled for all believers as God’s true people in a higher sense: they shall be perpetually bedewed with power from God. The favor of God is ever fresh and blooming for them, and they enjoy its fruits without intermission, as they themselves become like a living, firmly-rooted, wide-spreading, never-fading, sweet-smelling tree. All this has its beginning even now, as surely as the divine favor brought to us through Christ is a reality, but shall only find its complete perfection when the kingdom of God shall have attained its complete realization.
6. “It is the object of the Prophet Hosea and of all Prophecy, in the spirit of Hosea 14:10, to alarm and to warn the apostate, to confirm and to comfort the converted, and to glorify the Lord” (Schmieder). Only the ways of the Lord are right. Then inevitable destruction must befall him who departs from them. True wisdom is to regard them, and all the prophetic Scriptures are like an uplifted finger, which warns against any departure from them, and at the same time like an outstretched finger which points to the way upon which the righteous must walk.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
Hos_14:2-9. Franke: He who would read what is sweet and agreeable, should read the close of all the Prophets. They are like a choir of singers, one singing one part, another another; but at last they all dwell upon one note. The glory of Christ’s Church at last is the finale.
Hos_14:2. This is the key-note of all Prophecy; it always comes back to this. This warning is the most needed and the weightiest of all. All God’s judgments have this as their aim. They cry out earnestly: Return. O that we might hear! It is well to hear when God calls through his deeds; but it is better to hear his Words. “To thy God,” not to a strange God, but to One from whom so much good has been experienced, and who remains, the God of mercy and our God, even when He must punish us. Return! (I) the object: to the Lord, thy God; (2) the reason: because thou hast fallen through thy iniquity.
[Matt. Henry: Sin is a fall, and it concerns those who have fallen by sin to get up again by repentance.
Fausset: God assures us that He is the God of his people, and invites us not merely to return towards, but never to rest until we have reached even up to Himself—to be satisfied with nothing short of Himself.—M.]
Hos_14:3. Words are nothing unless they come from the depths of the heart. But when they come from thence, as did the Publican’s prayer, and David’s psalm of confession, then, though seemingly slight and less than “sacrifices,” they are in truth as great and naturally more than all merely outward offerings, since they are measured according to the disposition of the heart. All grief over sin avails nothing without the prayer for forgiveness addressed to God. Not repentance but forgiveness, gives rest and peace.
[Pusey: What other good can we offer than detestation of our past sins with burning desire of holiness?
Fausset: What so cheap as words? And yet words such as God requires are not natural to fallen man. The Spirit of God alone can teach such words. In Gospel times we have no longer burdensome literal sacrifices to offer, but we have an offering continually to render which is more acceptable to Him (Psa_69:30-31), the thanksgivings of unfeigned “lips,” sanctified through the offering of Christ once for all.—M.]
Hos_14:4. God is gracious to orphans. O that all orphaned ones might turn to God’s mercy!
[Pusey: He is indeed fatherless who hath not God for his Father.
Hos_14:5. Pusey: Steadfastness to the end is the special gift of the Gospel. In healing that disease of unsteadfastness God heals ail besides.—M.]
Hos_14:6. Starke: God alone can truly revive the heart. Let him who needs comfort and refreshing seek them in God.
Pfaff. Bibelwerk: See how believers bloom in their holiness, strike root, bring forth fruit, and diffuse fragrance all around! Art thou also such a fruitful tree displaying such vigor of spiritual life?
[Fausset: All that is beautiful, solid, harmonious, and enduring shall be found in harmonious unison in the “trees of righteousness,” etc. (Isa_61:3).
Pusey: Such reunion of qualities, being beyond nature, suggests the more, that that wherein they are all combined, the future Israel, the Church, shall flourish with graces that are beyond nature, in their manifold ness, completeness, unfadingness.—M.]
Hos_14:9. O that God could speak thus of us, finding in us no idolatry, nor needing to plead with us any longer because of our idols! What better thing could we wish than that God would regard us in mercy? In Christ this is realized. In Him he is also as an evergreen tree of life to believers; his mercy never ceases, and from its fullness they may all receive grace for grace. He is for them an evergreen tree of life, but also one whose fruit never fails, and ever nourishes.
[Matt. Henry: God will be to all true converts both a delight and a defense; under his protection and influence they shall both dwell in safety and dwell at ease. He will be either a sun and a shield, or a shade and a shield, as their case requires.
Pusey: Created beauty must at best be but a faint image of the beauty of the soul in grace; for this is from the indwelling of God the Holy Ghost.—M.]
Hosea 14:10, God’s ways are direct; we must therefore not follow roundabout or crooked courses, but go straight forward in faith and labor; a straight course makes the best runner. Righteousness brings a blessing; unfaithfulness a curse, remains the simple and infallible rule of living, attested by God’s word, and confirmed by experience.
Luther: Let us thank the merciful Father of Jesus Christ, for these greatest gifts, that He has revealed to us these direct ways, and pray that He would guide by his Holy Spirit those that walk therein, and preserve us to eternity.
[Matt. Henry: God’s discovery of Himself, both in the judgments of his mouth, and the judgments of his hand, is to us according as we are affected by it. The same sun softens wax and hardens clay. But of all transgressors, those certainly have the most dangerous fatal falls that fall in the way of God, that split on the Rock of Ages, that suck poison out of the balm in Gilead. Let sinners in Zion be afraid of this.
Pusey God reveals his ways to us not that we may know them only, but that we may do them, The life of grace is a life of progress. Every attribute or gift or revelation of God, which is full of comfort to the believer, becomes in turn an occasion of stumbling to the rebellious. With this the Prophet sums up all the teaching of the seventy years of his ministry. This is to us the end of all; this is thy choice, O Christian soul, to walk in God’s ways, or to stumble at them.—M.]
Footnotes:
[1]Hos_14:1.—תֶּאְשֵׁם. From the notion of suffering punishment is derived the signification: to be desolated, waste =שָׁמֵם. [The reverse would be the order if any connection between the verbs existed. But there is none whatever. The latter meaning in all likelihood arose from the similarity in form between the two words, the one form naturally suggesting the other. But it is not to be inferred from this that the words are cognate. The roots are not at all related, but belong to families essentially distinct. Fürst, however, holds to the affinity. But see the forms in Arabic and Ethiopic related to אשׁם, and compare the radically different notions which lie at the basis of their prevailing significations respectively.—M.]
[2]Hos_14:1.—הָרִוָּה= הָרָה. The masc. verb, with a fem. substantive is anomalous. According to Ewald it is to be explained from the fact that the fem, terminations of the plur. imperf. are but seldom employed. [The suggestion of Henderson is worthy of consideration, that the anomaly was occasioned by the form of יְרֻטָּשׁוּ immediately preceding.—M.]
[3]Hos_14:3.—כָּל־תִּשָּׂא עָוֹן. כָּל precedes for the sake of emphasis, and becomes an adverbial notion [=take away our iniquity altogether.]
[4]Hos_14:5.—נְדָבָה is an adverbial accusative [spontaneously, voluntarily, readily].
[5]Hos_14:6.—Newcome prefers to read לְבֹנָה, as more consistent with the context. But this cannot be admitted though it was the one followed by the Targum. See the exposition for the propriety of the image.—M.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv2–3 Take with you words--instead of sacrifices, namely, the words…
Take with you words--instead of sacrifices, namely, the words of penitence here put in your mouths by God. "Words," in Hebrew, mean "realities," there being the same term for "words" and "things"; so God implies, He will not accept empty professions (Psa 78:36; Isa 29:13). He does not ask costly sacrifices, but words of heartfelt penitence.
receive us graciously--literally "(for) good."
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calves of our lips--that is, instead of sacrifices of calves, which we cannot offer to Thee in exile, we present the praises of our lips. Thus the exile, wherein the temple service ceased, prepared the way for the gospel time when the types of the animal sacrifices of the Old Testament being realized in Christ's perfect sacrifice once for all, "the sacrifice of praise to God continually that is the fruit of our lips" (Heb 13:14) takes their place in the New Testament.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv1–3 Aside from the question of authorship (see Introduction, p.…
ISRAEL’S REPENTANCE — JEHOVAH’S PARDON, 1-9.
Aside from the question of authorship (see Introduction, p. 35ff.) chapter 14 presents several exegetical difficulties, especially in its latter part. Hos_14:9 stands by itself as an epilogue to the whole book. The author of this verse, who seems to look back over the fulfillment of Hosea’s oracles, expresses the thought that whosoever desires to become wise and prudent should become acquainted with the Book of Hosea. From it he may learn that Jehovah’s ways are right, and that the destinies of men are determined by their attitude toward the divine will. There is some uncertainty concerning the interpretation of Hos_14:8, but the general thought of Hos_14:1-8 is clear. The prophet exhorts Israel to return to Jehovah in humility and sorrow (Hos_14:1-2 a). He puts upon the lips of the Israelites words expressive of the deepest remorse, and of an earnest determination to remain forever loyal to Jehovah (Hos_14:2-3). To this penitent prayer Jehovah responds that he will graciously pardon, and shower upon the God-fearing people blessings hitherto unknown (Hos_14:4-8).
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1. Return — Israel was an apostate; had gone after the Baals. To enjoy again the divine favor the people must return to their own God, Jehovah, in obedience and love (compare Hos_6:1; Joe_2:12; Amo_4:6 ff.). Out of the Old Testament idea of a return to Jehovah grew the New Testament idea of conversion.
Jehovah thy God — In view of their constant tendency to run after other gods (Hos_2:5; Hos_4:12, etc.) they needed to be reminded again and again that Jehovah was their only legitimate God.
Hast fallen — Or, stumbled; they were over-taken by calamity (Hos_4:5; Hos_5:5) as a result of their sin.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv1–3 1. return … for thou hast fallen] To ‘stumble’…
1. return … for thou hast fallen] To ‘stumble’ or to ‘fall’ means to be visited by a calamity (as Hos_4:3, Hos_5:5). Experience has shown the Israelites, to quote Jeremiah (Hos_2:19), ‘what an evil and bitter thing it is to forsake Jehovah their God.’
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv1–3 (1) Thy.—Tenderness and inextinguishable love are suggested by the…
XIV.
(1) Thy.—Tenderness and inextinguishable love are suggested by the use of the pronoun. “Repentance (say the Rabbis) presses right up to the Eternal Throne.”
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1–3 The foregoing part of this book abounds with denunciations…
The foregoing part of this book abounds with denunciations of punishment; this closing chapter superabounds with promises of pardon. Wave after wave of threatened wrath had rolled over Israel and come in unto their soul; now offer after offer of grace is made to them. O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God. The invitation to return implies previous departure, or distance, or wandering from God. The return to which they are invited is expressed, not by la, to or towards, but by r, quite up to, or as far as right home; the penitent, therefore, is not merely to turn his mind or his face toward God, but to turn his face and his feet home to God; he is not to go half the way and then turn aside, or part of the way and then turn back, but the whole way; in other words, his repentance is to be complete and entire, wanting nothing, according to the state merit of the psalmist, "It is good for me to draw near to God." As punishment was threatened in case of obstinate impenitence, so mercy is promised on condition of thorough repentance. For thou hast fallen by thine iniquity. A reason is here assigned for the preceding invitation; ka-shalta is properly "thou hast stumbled," "made a false step," fallen, yet so that recovery was among future possibilities. The same thought may be included in the fact that Jehovah continues to call his erring people by the honored and honorable name of Israel, and to acknowledge himself their God. Further, many and grievous were the calamities into which by their fall they had been precipitated; neither were any to blame but themselves their iniquity or their folly was the cause, nor was there any one to lift them up, now that they lay prostrate, save Jehovah. After referring to the desolation of Samaria and the ruthless destruction of its inhabitants, as portrayed in the last verse of the previous chapter, Jerome adds, "All Israel is invited to repentance, that he who has been debilitated, or has fallen headlong in his iniquities, may return to the physician and recover health, or that he who had fallen headlong may begin to stand." The penitent is to direct his thoughts to Jehovah; to him as Center he is attracted, and in him he finds his place of rest; nor is there ether means of recovery or source of help. Thus Kimchi says, "For thou seest that through thine iniquity thou hast fallen, therefore it behooves thee to return to Jehovah, as nothing besides can raise thee from thy fall but thy return to him." "There is none," says Aben Ezra, "can raise thee from thy fall but the Eternal alone.
Vers. 1-3. The fallen invited to return.
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The history of Israel is the moral history of the world, at least in miniature.
I HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF. The history of Israel repeats itself in the history of mankind in general. Their history is the history of sin and of salvation, of ruin and of recovery, of the mercy of God and of the backsliding of man. Their bondage in Egypt represents the slavery of sin; their rescue out of the hand of the oppressor, our redemption; their sojourn in the wilderness, our strangership on earth; their entrance into Canaan, our admission into the better country, even the heavenly; their backsliding from time to time, our own wanderings of heart and life from the living God; their return to the path of obedience, our repentance.
II GOD"S READINESS TO RECEIVE THE PENITENT. The reproofs for sin and threatenings of wrath scattered over the preceding chapters of this book now give place to invitations to repentance and promises of mercy. The former were a preparation for the latter. Not only so, even interspersed with reproofs for sin we find most gracious calls to repentance; alongside the threatenings of wrath are the most precious promises. It is in this way that God wounds in order to make whole; when he convinces us of sin, his object is to comfort us; when he brings to mind our sin, it is that he may lead us to the Savior; when he proves to us our ruin by sin, he is at pains to point us to the remedy and provide for our restoration; having warned us of our danger, he urges us to the discharge of duty. He deals with us as with Israel at the time to which the prophet refers, showing us our fall and how we are to rise again; he urges us to repentance, instructing us what to do and what to say, and encouraging us withal by God"s willingness to receive us on repentance.
III MAN"S FALL AND ITS CAUSE. In the passage before us the words apply in the first instance to Israel; they had stumbled, such being the meaning of the original word. Their stumbling-blocks were their idols; they had forgotten the living and true God; they had proved ungrateful for his benefits and unmindful of his favors. Despising the riches of his goodness and forbearance, they had lapsed into gross idolatry; they had sunk deep into that degrading sin, making molten images of their silver and idols according to their own understanding, all of it the work of the craftsman. Their ingratitude for the Divine goodness made their iniquity still less excusable, for according to the multitude of his fruit they increased the altars, according to the goodness of his land he made goodly images. No wonder the Majesty of heaven was provoked with that stiffnecked and rebellious people. But the fall of Israel reminds us of the fall of man, and leads us naturally to revert to the infancy of our race.
1. Before the Fall. When we picture to ourselves, as far as the Scripture record enables us, the place of our first parents in the state of pristine innocence, we think of that lovely garden "planted eastward in Eden;" of its trees and shrubs; of its fruits and flowers; of the rivers that watered it; of its unclouded sky; of the genial warmth of the glorious sun fructifying and beautifying it; of the dews that refreshed it; of man its caretaker and cultivator of his pleasant position in that paradise, placed there as he was to dress it and to keep it. To this must be added the communion of the creature with the Creator, so close, so cordial, and so confidential as that communion then must have been. If Enoch, after sin and Satan had done their worst, still walked with God; if Abraham was called, not only the father of the faithful, but the friend of God; if God spake face to face with Moses, as a man speaketh with his friend; we may form some faint idea, and it is only a faint idea, of that heavenly communion which man there enjoyed with his Maker as he walked in the garden in the cool of the day.
2. After the Fall. We know how the scene was changed suddenly and shockingly changed. We have seen a picture designed to represent the change which sin introduced into Paradise, and the wreck which iniquity wrought. In one part of the picture all is beauty, all is loveliness; the sky is cleat", earth beneath is charming; above, below, around, everything appears inexpressibly gay and grand and gorgeous. Man is the monarch of all; every bird of every wing is subject to him, every animal of every species is submissive to his sway, even the most savage beast of prey owns his sovereignty. The lion crouches at his feet, he strokes the tiger with his hand. But no sooner has he tasted the forbidden fruit than the sky is clouded, lightning flashes with fearful fury, the elements are at war with him. The animals, lately so meek and mild, rise in rebellion against him the lion opens his mouth in wrath, the tiger is wild with fury. Our first parents themselves, shivering with horror, shuddering with fright, are hurried out of Paradise. A flaming sword prevents their return, and guards on every side the tree of life. Such is the painting referred to, and it pictures a dread reality. It points out how man fell, and how far he fell from his state of primeval bliss, of fellowship with the Holy One, and of Divine favor.
3. The cause of such a fall. Iniquity was the cause, as we here read of Israel, "Thou hast fallen by thine iniquity." In that iniquity there were various elements; when analyzed it is found to be made up of several component parts. There was the lust of the flesh, for the tree was good for food; there was the lust of the eyes, for that tree was pleasant to the eyes; there was the pride of life, it was a tree to be desired to make one wise shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." There was, in short, rebellion against the mildest authority; there was disobedience to the most reasonable command.
4. Consequences of the fall are seen in posterity. When we read the records of the ancient nations of heathendom, even the most enlightened and polished, we cannot fail to be convinced of the deep degradation into which man by iniquity had fallen. In Egypt, the cradle of civilization, men worshipped animals and plants, and even reptiles. In Greece, with all its boasted intellectual superiority, aesthetic tastes, and fine arts, men worshipped a host of false gods, deified men, and even impersonations of the lowest passions and worst vices that agitate the human heart; while of Athens itself it was said that you could as easily find a god as a man in that celebrated city in Rome men multiplied gods, for, in addition to the national divinities, they readily admitted into their pantheon the gods, however monstrous and motley, of the nations which they conquered. Among the people of Israel in the prophet"s time the great besetting sin was idolatry with all its foul accompaniments. In heathen lands at the present day it is still the same; multitudes bow down to stocks and stones, and call these vanities gods. Can anything afford clearer evidence of the fearful fall of our race than this sottish idolatry of ancient and modern heathen, as also of the Hebrew people, though so highly favored with the written Law, besides that which they had in common with their heathen neighbors? We forbear to speak of the gross impurities and shocking immoralities that go hand-in-hand with idolatry.
5. Illustration of the Fall. Of manifold illustrations which the subject admits take that of a stately tree. Its dimensions are mighty and magnificent its top waves high in air, its branches spread far around, its leafy honors are luxuriant, its foliage umbrageous; it claims or seems to claim supremacy over all the forest trees. But the axe is laid to its root. You beg the woodman to spare that tree. It is vain, however; he has made up his mind, and it is doomed to fall. Blow after blow is struck; the sturdy strokes are redoubled; at length the root is giving way, the top is nodding, the tree topples to its fall. One creak, one crash, and the goodly tree is prostrate; ruin spreads the ground. Ere long the branches wither and the leaves decay. What a contrast between that tree flourishing in the stateliness of its strength and the loveliness of its life, and that same tree felled to the earth, its leaves stripped off, its branches lopped, the whole a sad emblem of decay, a solemn memorial of destruction! Such is the contrast between man in his original purity, while standing by faith, and man at the present day fallen by iniquity.
6. Greatness of the Fall. When the great Roman dictator had usurped the liberties of his country and changed the republican form of government to the imperial; when he had overcome all opposition, conquered all enemies, and fully gained the mastery; when he had reached the summit of popularity and power; just then the daggers of the conspirators smote him to the earth. He fell at the foot of his great rival"s statue. The friend who spoke his funeral oration and improved the occasion did justly magnify that fall, exclaiming, as well he might, "What a fall was there, my countrymen!" But what, after all, is the fall of the warrior, or hero, or emperor, even from the pinnacle of his fame and of his fortune, compared with the fall of an immortal soul by sin, dragged down into the deep pit of perdition? The sight of the fallen warrior, as he sat amid the ruins of Carthage, has furnished a subject for men to moralize on, while historians have commented on the fact; and it is indeed sufficiently impressive. The harmony that existed between the person and the place was necessarily striking and even startling; the fate of the one was so like that of the other, the downfall of the one was so similar to the desolation of the other, that we scarcely know which of the two is more entitled to the tear of pity or sigh of sympathy the degradation of the chieftain or the destruction of the city. Yet greater far are the degradation and desolation which the blight of sin brings upon person or place.
7. Practical considerations. We need not travel far for proof of our fallen state; we do not need to go back to our first parents except for the purpose of tracing the evil to its fountain-head; we need not visit pagan lands, whether past or present; we do not require to quit the lands of Christendom. The condition of the Hebrew people as set forth by the Prophet Hosea is one that often repeats itself in the experiences some of them sad enough of everyday life. How many have fallen by iniquity around us! How many are falling by iniquity at our very doors, on this side and on that! How many have we known to begin life well, but they fell by iniquity! The wrecks of the fallen are strewn on the right hand and on the left. Some fall by drunkenness, some by lewdness, some by want of rectitude and right principle, some by what the world calls unsteadiness. If the sword slays its thousands, iniquity slays its tens of thousands.
8. Personal duties. Several personal duties of much importance may be learnt from this part of the subject; these may be expressed in Scripture language as follows: "Let him that standeth take heed lest he fall;" "Give diligence to make your calling and election sure; for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall;" "Beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own steadfastness." Also pity the fallen; try to lift them up; pray for the backslider who has fallen back from the position he seemed to have attained, and seek to restore such a one in the spirit of meekness.
IV THE RETURN OF THE PENITENT. Many motives, and those of the most powerful kind, urge the sinner to return to God.
1. There is the character of the invitation. It is an earnest one, a precious one, and a glorious one. It is the gospel re-echoing through the past and resounding about us at the present. This invitation proves the height, and depth, and length, and breadth of the Divine goodness.
2. There is the Author of the invitation. It proceeds from the Friend whom we have treated so ungratefully and so ungraciously; he comes after us, as it were, calling and entreating us to return; he promises us a hearty welcome when we do return; he assures us that his heart and hearth and home stand open to receive us; his arms are stretched out to embrace us.
3. There are the persons invited. The vilest are subjects of this invitation; the oldest, the worst, the most wicked, are comprehended; they are offered present pardon, they are assured of instant forgiveness, and all without money and without price: "The Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." Oh, then, since God is waiting and willing to be gracious, let not the sinner ignore that goodness, nor regard it with insensibility, nor trample underfoot his great mercy, nor treat his gracious overtures as the idle wind that passeth by; but allow himself to be led by the goodness of God to repent race.
V THE MODE OF RETURNING TO GOD. We are to take with us words, as the worshipper in the olden time did not go empty-handed, but brought with him an offering when he went to worship God.
1. The words we are required to bring are words of confession, like the poor prodigal when he said, "Father, I have sinned against Heaven, and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son;" like the contrite publican when he cried, "God be merciful to me a sinner." If we thus confess our sins, he "is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
2. There must be petition as well as confession; our words must be words of earnest pleading. Nor are we left without instruction on this head; suitable petitions are suggested, and the very words put in our lips. There is, according to the Authorized Version, a petition for forgiveness and one for favor. The former is, "Take away all iniquity;" for it is iniquity that has wrought our ruin, it is sin that is the source of all our sorrows; take it away, for by it we have fallen. Take it all away the guilt of it, the defilement of it, the dominion of it, the love of it, and the practice of it. Take it all away and forever, for it is only thus we can be saved; only thus our souls are washed and justified and sanctified in the Name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. The second part of the petition pleads for favor; it is, "Receive us graciously;" that is, receive us into thy favor, thy family, and thy service. Receive us graciously, that is, gratuitously, of thy free favor and sovereign grace; not on the ground of innocence, forNot in our innocence we trust We bow before thee in the dust: And through our Savior"s blood alone We seek acceptance at thy throne.
Not on the ground of merit, for we have sinned and merit only wrath; not on the ground of price, for we have nothing to payNothing in our hand we bring, Simply to thy cross we cling.
Not on the ground of works, for we are saved solely of the Divine mercy, according to the riches of his grace in Christ Jesus.
3. There are words of thanksgiving. The calves, even the lips, are the thank offerings and service of the lips in general; nor do these differ aught from the fruit of the lips. Thanksgiving, praise, prayer, self-dedication, and self-surrender are all expressed by the lips, and are thus their offerings or their fruit. Nay, rather unto me, thy God, Thanksgiving offer thou; To the Most High perform thy word. And fully pay thy vow: And in the day of thy distress Do thou unto me cry; I will deliver thee, and thou My Name shalt glorify.
VI FRUITS MEET FOR REPENTANCE. These in the present instance consist in the complete rejection of carnal confidences and sole dependence on God. The penitent Israelite renounces all confidence in worldly policy, and worldly allies as secured by such policy the Assyrian and the Egyptian alike. He renounces his idolatrous practices and superstitious devotions; and, depending no longer on foreign help, or objects and observances of idol-worship, or domestic resources, he places his entire and undivided trust in the living God. Henceforth the rule of his conduct and motto of his life may be conceived as summed up in the words of the psalmist: "Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the Name of the Lord our God." It has been well said that "there is no sin more usual among men than carnal confidence; to lean on our own wisdom, or wealth, or power, or supplies from others; to deify counsels and armies, or horses and treasures, and to let our hearts rise or fall, sink or bear up within us, according as the creature is helpful or useless, nearer or further from us; as if God were not a God afar off, as well as near at hand." This was one of Israel"s great sins, and which on repentance is renounced. This is a common sin, and one which all must renounce, trusting, not in an arm of flesh, but sanctifying the Lord alone in our hearts. It is when we feel our condition in this world to be one of orphanage, of weakness, destitution, desolateness, and distress, that we repose trustfully and securely in the Divine mercy and gracious fatherhood of God.
HOMILIES BY C. JERDAN Vers. 1-3. Return to God: its beginnings.
The long and terrible storm of denunciation is now at last over; the wrath-clouds roll away, and the sunshine of the Divine love bursts forth with healing in its wings. Beyond all the hurly-burly of the tempest sent as the punishment of sin, the prophet discerns the paternal tenderness and the loving patience of the God of Israel. So he begins this closing chapter of his book with a last tender entreaty to return to him who "sitteth upon the flood," and who will bless his people with peace." How changed the prophet"s style, in this final strophe, from what it is in most of the preceding! When denouncing Ephraim"s sin and doom Hoses is obscure, abrupt, rugged, and volcanic; but in Hosea 14 all is pellucid and restful and full of beauty. The whirlwind and the earthquake and the fire have given place to the still small voice. The subject in these opening verses is The beginnings of spiritual revival. In its rise there are three stages.
I THE LORD BESEECHING. (Ver. 1) As applied to Israel, the exhortation has for its background all the judgments which have been threatened throughout the Book. And since these words were written Israel "has fallen" indeed. The ten tribes were soon carried into Assyria; Judah was by-and-by driven away to weep beside the rivers of Babylon; regained Jerusalem was at length fiercely overthrown by the Romans; and for eighteen centuries now the Jews have been dispersed over the wide world, and exposed to reproach and persecution and cruelty. All this has been the punishment of Israel"s own "iniquity the political schism, the calf-worship, the Baalism, the godless pride, the unblushing immorality, and at last the rejection and murder of the Son of God. Jehovah could not avoid punishing; he could not but allow the apostate nation to lie under its doom during centuries and millenniums; but all the while the Divine heart is saying, "O Israel, return!" How wonderful that the eternal God should condescend to entreat men to repent! But the Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations". (Psa_100:5) If, however, there is to be salvation, there must be repentance, and all true repentance takes its rise in the call of God"s Spirit. The Lord seeks the sinner with his grace before the sinner can seek him. And thus Return unto the Lord" is the burden of the entire revelation of the Bible; it is the key-note of all Hebrew prophecy, as of all New Testament gospel. Not only so, but in this passage God also condescends to direct the people as to the thoughts and words" with which they may acceptably approach him in complying with his urgent entreaty (vers. 2, 8). How different all this from "the manner of man"!
II THE PENITENT PRAYING. (Ver. 2) This verse and ver. 3 form a sort of Lord"s Prayer" for backsliders. God desires no longer the animal sacrifices of the Law; indeed, the twelve tribes cannot in their exile offer any, for the temple-worship has now ceased. But he requires words" which shall be the evidence of "a broken and a contrite heart." Even these, however, he here provides for his penitent children. What need God words? He knows our hearts before we speak unto him. It is true, God needs no words; but we do, to stir up our hearts and affections" (Sibbes). Although the Lord does not now demand sacrifices, the kind of" words" which he asks recalls to our minds the three principal forms of sacrifice ordained by the Levitical Law, viz. the propitiatory, the dedicatory, and the eucharistic, represented respectively by the sin offering, the burnt offering, and the peace offering. In a true return to God there will be:
1. Words of confession. "Take away all iniquity." A child who has done wrong recovers his father"s favor so soon as he confesses his fault; so Jehovah"s children, who have made themselves "fatherless" by their apostasy, take the first step in the direction of" finding mercy " when they "return up to" (ver. 1) him with words of repentance. The penitent draws near with the leper"s confession, "Unclean! Unclean!" and with the publican"s prayer, "God be merciful to me a sinner." His first and deepest need is pardon; he wants mercy for the past, and grace to help for the future. He prays to be delivered from the power of evil; and pleads, in doing so, the merit of Jesus Christ as his Sin Offering.
2. Words of dedication. "Receive us graciously;" literally, receive good." The barrier of sin being removed through faith in the atonement, the next step in revival is the presentation of the person a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God". (Rom_12:1) It is true that of ourselves we have no good which we can offer; but we are to give to the Lord of his own. The grace which he bestows upon us we are to employ in his service and for his glory. The Christian dedicates his renewed humanity, in body and soul, to his Redeemer. (Mic_6:6-8)
3. Words of thanksgiving. So will we render the calves of our lips," i.e. we shall offer our lips as a peace offering, instead of calves. The praise of a redeemed heart is an acceptable sacrifice, and shall please the Lord better than a bullock that hath horns and hoots". (Psa_69:31) The soul that has been forgiven much loves much, and should therefore overflow with thanksgiving and praise. (Heb_13:15) Such are the three sorts of "words" which God expects from all who "return" to him. He wants words of confession like those of Ps 51; of self-dedication, like those of Ps 116; of thanksgiving, like those of Psalm 103. And, now that Christ has come, these are the sacrifices of God," alike for the sons of Israel and for sinners of the Gentiles.
III THE PENITENT RENOUNCING CREATURE-CONFIDENCES. (Ver. 3) After the threefold word-sacrifice, comes the promise of practical amendment and reformation. Israel resolves to forsake his great national sins, viz. his habit of looking for help to Assyria, his reliance upon the cavalry of Egypt or other warlike strength, and his idolatry of Baal and the calves. The people will show the sincerity of their conversion by endeavors after new obedience. They will realize that away from God they are helpless orphans; and, in all their approaches to him, appeal to his "mercy "as the "Father of the fatherless," This is just what every sinner must do in returning to the Lord. We all have Asshurs and horses and idols which we must abjure. If we will "return quite up to Jehovah our God" (ver. 1) we must put away confidence in every creature-help, and in any defense which is our own handiwork. We may have been "glued to idols"; (Hos_4:17) but we must at any cost tear them out of our hearts, even although the soul should seem to be rent asunder in the process. For true conversion implies perfect union to the Lord Jesus Christ, perpetual communion with the Holy Spirit, and persevering progress in the ways of holiness. We obey "the first and great commandment," and fulfill the chief end of our being, when we choose Jehovah as the Portion of our souls, and give him our supreme and constant and most tender love.
LESSONS.
1. The mercy of God to sinners is untiring and indestructible (ver. 1).
2. Now that Christ has died as our Sin Offering, we plead his atonement as the ground on which we ask the Lord to "take away all iniquity" (ver. 2).
3. "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit," and contrition always manifests itself in prayer (ver. 2).
4. To obey is better than sacrifice" (ver. 3).
5. The penitent sinner and the backsliding believer have this assuring motive to induce them to return to God, that, however they may be scorned by their fellow-men, they are sure of a warm welcome from him who is the "Father of the fatherless. C.J.
HOMILIES BY A. ROWLAND Vers. 1, 2. God"s message to the prodigal.
This chapter stands out in vivid contrast from much that precedes it. The denunciation of threats is over, and now Hosea turns to tender pleading with the godless. The change is like that which we see sometimes during a thunderstorm. The clouds gather, the wind sinks into a solemn silence, then the thunder rolls and crashes overhead, and men"s hearts fail them for fear. But suddenly there is a lull, the clouds break, and, as a burst of sunshine lights up the earth, the rainbow of God"s faithfulness and goodness is seen. With such a sudden and sublime transition does Hosea pass here from storm to calm, from denunciation to pleading. The prophet is addressing a nation which, as such, could not be saved. The kingdom of Israel was to be hopelessly destroyed. But the children were still "heirs of the promises," and, while the corporate society to which they belonged would be swept away, they themselves might return to their God. There is no nation so evil but that in it some may work righteousness, no family so godless but that some of its members may be loyal to Christ. Circumstances never necessitate the ruin of a soul. The desolation of society has been historically the means of saving what is best in it; e.g. if in the reign of Charles I the unscrupulous Buckingham had been successful in his foreign policy, the result would have been the establishment of a tyranny in England. Our national defeats just then were the cause of our constitutional salvation; men being roused to a consciousness of wrongdoing by the consequences of wrong-doing. So with Israel. The destruction of Israel seemed to the heathen the failure of Jehovah"s purpose; but it was the means of salvation to many who heard and obeyed in the misery of exile, as they would not have heard and obeyed in prosperity, the exhortation, "O Israel, return unto the Lord." A world-wide truth was taught by our Lord when he described the prodigal as thinking of the father"s home, when he "had spent all," and famine was in the land, so that "he began to be in want." Our text is God"s message to such a one.
I THE CONDITION OF THE SINNER.
1. A condition of estrangement. Implied in return." 0f those addressed by Hoses, some had once joined in Jehovah"s worship, but had forsaken it, while others had been taken as children to the altars of idols. These two classes are represented still. There are those who have never known God; to them he is no more than the emperor of a distant land might be, the ruler of others, one to be heard and read of, but nothing more. There are also those whose hearts were once tender, who were nominally on the side of the Church, to whom the Lord says, "I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love." Apply the text to each.
2. A condition of moral degradation. "Fallen.
(1) Godlessness is itself an inward degradation. The godless man has "fallen" below what he might have been, as a ruler of himself and a worshipper of God. He has fallen from the likeness and from the favor of God.
(2) It leads to moral degradation; so that ultimately courage, purity, and reverence in the outward life disappear. "Iniquity," i.e. an inward tendency to evil, does for the character what the sea does for the cliff, undermining it secretly, till unexpectedly it falls.
3. A condition of self-destructiveness. "Thine iniquity." Not Adam"s transgression, not thy father"s neglect or evil example, not the associations of life, but "thine own iniquity," ruins thee. Therefore, with a sense of weakness and guilt, let us return to the Lord, saying, "I have sinned against Heaven," etc.; God be merciful to me a sinner.
II THE CHARACTERISTICS OF HIS RETURN.
1. Sincerity, or thoroughness. The Pharisees were condemned for want of it. All are rejected of whom God can say, "This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth... but their heart is far from me," The Hebrew signifies, Return right up to thy God." You are not to stop at self-reformation or at sentimental feeling, but to return right up to" God, and stand face to face with him. To be nearly saved is to be altogether lost.
2. Confession. "Take with you words." Words are cheap enough. It is well that no costly sacrifice is required, but only "words," which the poorest and most illiterate can utter. Words are worthless in themselves, but they have true value when they come from an honest and good heart. If a child who has done wrong is shut up alone to think over his fault, he knows that all he has to say is, "I"m sorry." It is easy enough to say the words; yet he sits there, proud and defiant, until better thoughts come to him; and when at last he falters out "I"m sorry," it is enough to win him reconciliation. The "words " are nothing, but they mean much, for they involve self-conquest and humiliation. That is the meaning of the exhortation to the penitent. "Take with you words.
3. Entreaty.
(1) Take away all iniquity." This implies that only God can do so. The prayer involves much. We want not only the consciousness of sin or the punishment of sin removed, but the "iniquity" itself taken away. The true penitent does not say, "Take away the sins that disgrace me, but spare those by which I make money," or, "Destroy my lusts, but let ambition and pride remain." Popular sins, pet sins, as well as vile sins, are included in the words, "Take away all iniquity.
(2) And receive us graciously; " literally, "receive good." The "good" we offer God comes from himself, so that we must say of all right desire and true thought and Christian service, "Of thine own have we given thee." He can only cast out evil by pouting in good. He leaves no heart empty, but gives the new love to keep out, as well as to cast out, the old. Yet even the good he gives is so affected by our imperfections that, casting ourselves upon his condescension and mercy, we need to pray, "Receive good.
4. Resolve:
(1) To have done with the old sins. "Asshur shall not save us," etc. This is an abjuration of Israel"s three sins:
(a) trust in man (Asshur);
(b) trust in self (horses, equivalent to military power);
(c) trust in idols.
These have their modern counterparts, when we trust
(a) in the influence of others to get us on in life;
(b) in our physical or intellectual power;
(c) in our wealth and position, instead of in God.
(2) To offer perpetual thanksgiving. "So will we render the calves of our lips." The meaning of the phrase is when we have received pardon and conquest of sin, "we will praise thee with joyful lips." What more noble than praise, such as the redeemed render! what more natural, when we remember the goodness of God! what more helpful to others than the songs which of old caused the glory of God to fill the house of the Lord! "It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord," etc.
III THE ENCOURAGEMENT TO HIS OBEDIENCE.
1. It is found in the fatherliness o God. Ver. 3: "For in thee the fatherless findeth mercy." He is "thy God," to whom thou owest obedience; who has girded thee, though thou hast not known him; and who now sees thee a great way off, and has compassion on thee. When the dove found no rest for her foot in a dark and desolate world, she returned to the ark; nor had she to flutter outside it in vain. Noah saw her, and put out his hand and "took her in unto him into the ark." If Noah did that for a poor tired bird, what will not God do for his own tired child?
2. They are found in the promises of God. Ver. 4: "I will heal their backsliding," etc. He pledges himself to cure our waywardness and fickleness, and he is faithful. Therefore, though a good reputation has been lost, a pious ancestry disgraced, and holy promises broken, yet be encouraged to obey the loving exhortation, "O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God. A.R.
HOMILIES BY J.R. THOMSON Vers. 1, 2. Counsels to the sinful.
It was the office of the prophet to be faithful at once with man and with God. He was bound not to flatter man, not to conceal or palliate human sins. At the same time, it was his to declare the whole counsel of God as the Ruler of all men, the Judge of the obdurate, the Healer of the penitent.
I A REMINDER OF THE FALL. The Book of Hosea"s prophecies is full of reproaches and expostulations addressed to backsliding, idolatrous Israel. The people are charged with iniquity, and they are put in mind of the "fall" into which their ungodliness has brought them. As surely as men wander from the ways of God into the ways of error, unrighteousness, and folly, so surely do they, sooner or later, meet with a fall. It is a plain truth that the godly stand upright. Under a Divine and righteous rule it cannot be well with those who neglect and despise the moral law. Our first parents "fell" by sin, and in this they furnished an exemplification of the consequences of disobedience as a lesson to their posterity.
II AN ENCOURAGEMENT TO REPENTANCE. In the very language used in this expostulation and entreaty there is much to cheer and to justify the approach of the penitent sinner unto God.
1. There is the designation "Israel," the use of which seems a reminder of the Divine favor.
2. There is the appellation given to Jehovahthe Lord thy God;" thine, even though thou hast shown thyself so insensible and so ungrateful.
3. There is the term which the counselor employs "return," unto the Lord, implying that the right and proper path is Godward, that to have forsaken that path was deviation and error, that steps must be retraced. What stress is laid in Scripture upon sincere repentance and conversion upon the turning of the soul unto him against whom sin has been committed, needs not to be shown; yet the sinful need that such directions should be repeated, both to preserve them from any other and any false way, and to encourage diffident and desponding souls in their access to God.
III A DIRECTION TO CONFESSION AND ENTREATY. "Take with you words.
1. This is an encouragement to the expression and outpouring of the feelings of the heart. Mere words, that is, meaningless and insincere words, are vain; but words which are the utterance of a penitent and lowly soul, are acceptable.
2. Words should utter the self-abasement which is the sinner"s proper attitude of heart before a righteous Lord. Confession is indispensable; for only the hardened and insensible can withhold it.
3. Words should plead for pardon and acceptance. The prophet himself puts such language into Israel"s lips, and at the same time represents the willingness of an offended God graciously to hear and royally to answer.
APPLICATION. To show what light is furnished by the gospel of Christ to make evident alike the sinner"s condition and also the grounds and assurance of Divine favor and forgiveness. T.
HOMILIES BY D. THOMAS Vers. 1-7. Repentance, or reformation.
"O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God," etc. "After the prophet has set before the sinful nation in various ways its own guilt, and the punishment that awaits it, viz. the destruction of the kingdom, he concludes his addresses with a call to thorough conversion to the Lord, and the promise that the Lord will bestow his grace once more upon those who turn to him, and will bless them abundantly" (Delitzsch). The subject of these words is Repentance; or, the greatest reformation. Reformation is a subject on which men are never tired of talking: it is the grand text of the demagogue, as well as the leading purpose of the philanthropist. There are various kinds of reformation. There is the doctrinal reformation reformation in creed, the renunciation of one set of opinions and the adoption of another. There is the institutional reformation reformation in political, in ecclesiastical, and in social laws. There is the reformation in external character involving the renunciation of old habits and the formation of new ones. But all such reformations are of little, if any worth, apart from the moral reformation a reformation in the leading spirit and controlling dispositions of the soul, a reformation involving a thorough change of heart. This is the only reformation worth working for. In these verses we have several things worth notice in relation to it.
I ITS NATURE AND METHOD INDICATED.
1. Its nature. "O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God." The description contained in the first and third verses of this reformation implies three things.
(1) That the soul is away from God. Truly the moral heart of humanity is far gone from the great Father. The souls of men are in the "far country" of sin. "Fallen by thine iniquity." It has gone down from the high hills of spiritual purity and Divine communion.
(2) The renunciation of all dependence upon creatures. "Asshur shall not save us; we will not ride upon horses." This means We will not trust to Asshur that is, Assyria for help. Nor will we ride upon horses court friendship with Egypt from whence they are fetched. When danger comes, we will trust in God, and him only. Moral reformation involves all this. All dependence on anything short of God for salvation is given up science, philosophy, ritualism, priesthood, shall not save us.
(3) Utter abandonment of all idols. "Neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, Ye are our gods. For in thee the fatherless findeth mercy.
2. Its method. "Take with you words, and turn to the Lord." Why take words to God?
(1) Not because words can inform him of anything of which he is ignorant. With words we enlighten men; but Omniscience knows all connected with us all that we are, have been, and shall be, through all the ages of the future.
(2) Not because words can induce him to be more kind to us than he is. With words we persuade men to grant us our requests; but our words can never dispose him to do what he has not been always ready to accomplish. Words can never make him more kind and merciful than he has ever been. Why, then, use words? Because words relieve our own spirits; words aid our own devotions. This, then, is the method go to God at once, and pour out your souls before him. Before him resolve, "So will we render the calves of our lips." And before him pray. Pray for two things.
(a) His forgiveness. "Take away all sin.
(b) His acceptance. "Receive us graciously
II ITS CAUSE AND BLESSEDNESS SPECIFIED.
1. Its cause. God. "I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely .... I will be as the dew." All reformation is brought about by his agency. I will act upon the soul silently, penetratingly, revivifying, "as the dew." All true reformation brings with it God"s silent but effective agency.
2. Its blessedness.
(1) Health. "I will heal their backsliding." The soul is diseased. God is its great Physician.
(2) Divine favor. "I will love them freely: for mine anger is turned away from him." The auger with which their guilty consciences invested him is removed as a thick cloud from the sky of their soul, and it glows in the sunshine of their love.
(3) Growth. "He shall grow as the lily.
(A)the growth is connected with beauty. Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like it.
(b) Its growth is connected with strength. Cast forth his roots as Lebanon." How deeply did the roots of the cedar in Lebanon strike into the earth! and how firm their grasp! The storms of centuries could not remove them.
(c) Its growth is connected with expansiveness. "His branches shall spread." Widely grew the branches of those old cedars, offering to the traveler a cooling shade from the sun and a shelter from the tempest. How a divinely formed soul expands! It outgrows the boundaries of sects and the limits of creeds. Its sympathies become world-wide.
(d) Its growth is connected with fragrance. "His beauty shall be as the olive tree, and his smell as Lebanon." Sweet was the aroma that was swept by the wind over those old hills. How delectable the fragrance of a holy life!
(e) Its growth is connected with social usefulness. It shall offer protection to men. "They that dwell under his shadow shall return." Where car we flee in distress but to the sympathy and love of the good? Not only protection, but beneficent progress. "They shall revive as the corn, and grow as the vine. D.T.
HOMILIES BY J. ORR Vers. 1-3. The prayer of the penitent.
The prophecy does not close without comforting glimpses into the future, and sweet words of promise. The opening verses of this section invite the nation to repentance. They put a prayer into the people"s lips with which to return to God.
I THE INVITATION. (Ver. 1) The door of mercy stands open to Israel. But the invitation addressed to the ancient people is equally, in Christ, addressed to every sinner. Consider, accordingly:
1. The condition in which the sinner is found. "Fallen by thine iniquity." "There is none righteous, no, not one". (Rom_3:10) We have all fallen by our iniquity.
(1) Fallen from the state in which we were created.
(2) Fallen out of the Divine favor.
(3) Fallen into wretchedness, guilt, discord with self, pollution, bondage.
(4) Fallen in some cases under heavy strokes of the Divine anger.
We have so fallen that we cannot raise ourselves up again.
2. To whom the sinner is pointed. "The Lord thy God." Israel"s God and ours. God is our God, as being
(1) our Maker;
(2) our Sustainer;
(3) our moral Ruler;
(4) our Savior.
He is the God and Father of Jesus Christ our Lord. He gives us in the promises of the gospel a claim upon himself. He is ours in offer, and will be ours in fact, if only we will receive him. There is no Savior beside him, (Hos_13:4) and no other is needed. He alone is all-sufficient.
3. The invitation given to the sinner. "0 Israel, return unto the Lord thy God." God might command, but he condescends to invite, to entreat. (2Co_5:20) He asks us to return to him. He can ask no less, for without penitent return, salvation is impossible. His mercy is seen in this, that he asks no more no sacrifices, no price, no probationary curriculum, no works of the Law. But the return must be sincere, not with the body, but with the mind, the affections, the will.
II THE PRAYER. (Ver. 2) The penitent, resolved on returning to God, is counseled to take with him "words." The inward penitence is to express itself outwardly. It is to utter itself in prayer. This is the only sacrifice God will require. The prayer with which we are to come is:
1. Prayer for forgiveness. "Take with you words, and turn to the Lord: say unto him, Take away all iniquity." Forgiveness is the first need of our nature. Till sin is forgiven us we can have no peace with God, we cannot be visited by his love or made partakers of his Spirit. Forgiveness at once precedes, and is a pledge of, the communication of every other blessing. It is, therefore, the thing we first ask lot We are to confess sin and to seek the pardon of it. (1Jn_1:9)
2. The prayer of uprightness. "Accept what is good for thus the second clause must be rendered. The language is not that of self-righteousness, but of sincere motive. The penitent knows his unworthiness, but is conscious at the same time that his prayer no longer proceeds from feigned lips; (Psa_17:1) that his spirit is truly contrite; that there is some good thing "in his heart towards the Lord God". (1Ki_13:14) He recognizes this:
(1) As a fruit of Divine grace in the soul therefore a pledge of acceptance. God, who by his Spirit draws the sinner to himself, will not east him off when he comes. (Joh_6:37, Joh_6:44, Joh_6:45)
(2) As essential to forgiveness. For though it is God"s mercy, not our own righteousness, that saves us, it is yet essential to acceptance that our spirit, in returning to God, be without guile. (Psa_32:2 Psa_51:4, Psa_51:6) Coming to God with upright intent, and conscious that we do so, it is natural that we should appeal to this in prayer.
3. Prayer in order to praise. "So will we render the calves of our lips." Salvation carries with it the obligation to consecration. (Rom_12:1) The penitent has no other desire than now to live to God, rendering to him spiritual sacrifices. He asks God to open his lips (by forgiveness), that he may thereafter show forth God"s praise. (Psa_51:15) We render to God "the calves of our lips
(1) in acknowledgment of him;
(2) in thanksgiving; (Heb_13:15)
(3) in praises; (Psa_40:3 Psa_1:2-3)
(4) in confession of him before men.
III THE VOW. (Ver. 5.) With prayer is connected a solemn vow. Israel renounces all sinful trusts, and looks to God only. He renounces:
1. Trust in man. "Asshur shall not save us." The world is a poor savior. It promises much, but gives little. Its favor is deceitful. Its will to help is even more limited than its power. But its power is not great. It cannot save when God contends with us. It must leave us to shift for ourselves at death. It has no salvation for the soul for eternity.
2. Trust in his own strength. "We will not ride upon horses." Israel had multiplied horses. He put trust in them for his deliverance. This trust, with every other of a similar kind, he now renounced. Neither in war, nor in peace, nor in anything he did, would he exalt himself as independent of God. He would be humble.
3. Trust in idols. "Neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, Ye are our gods." Thus, in succession, Israel renounced, as Christians would say, the world, the flesh, and the devil. Every heart not serving God has its idol its something which it puts in God"s place. This it now renounces, and gives him all the glory. The prayer concludes with an appeal to the Divine pity. "For in thee the fatherless findeth mercy." The soul without God is as one orphaned. In penitence it seeks the pity of him who compassionates the fatherless. God feels this pity for his alienated children. J.O.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv1–3 O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God.
Hos_14:1
O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God.
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Mans evil estate, and hope of deliverance
While the freeness of Gods mercy is the leading idea suggested by the text, it is not the only one: the condition of our nature is accurately expressed, as is the mode by which alone it can be ameliorated.
I. The state into which man has brought himself. There are few things more important than the fastening on the sinner all the blame of his sin. Adam might have obeyed the simple injunction, and, holding on his probation, might have won for himself and his descendants a hereafter fenced up against the spoiler. God foreknew that Adam would transgress, and prepared for the contingency. We can see that if there had been no ruin there could have been no restoration. The work of redemption takes, of course, for granted the apostasy of our race. On Adam must be fastened all the blame of his transgression. There was no extenuating plea which the offender could in justice have urged. The blame of the fall belongs individually to man. Thou hast not fallen through an inherent inability to stand; He has so constituted thee that thou mightest have stood. Thou hast not fallen through the ground being slippery, and thick-set with snares. He placed thee where thy footing was firm, and thy pathway direct. So that upon man himself comes home wholly all the effect of the fall. We argue from this the unqualified gratuitousness of Gods interposition on mans behalf. In whatever degree there may be a necessity of sinning, in no degree is there a necessity of perishing. God places no man in such a moral condition that our falling into perdition is unavoidable. Let a man have once heard of Christ, and from that moment forward salvation is within arms length of this man. Man can have no right to take off the burthen of responsibilities and cast it on the secret decrees of his Maker.
II. The mode of mans deliverance. Return unto the Lord thy God. It comes not within our power to destroy or diminish Gods title to our service. The fall did not do away with Gods claim on man. Some teach that God proportions His demands to our impaired capacities, and will be satisfied with the honest endeavour, seeing that we cannot come up to the thorough performance. But this is making God answerable for the apostasy of man. We may, however, gather an inference of consolation as well as one of admonition. There is the groundwork of hope, that God will yet look mercifully upon us, and restore us, seeing that, notwithstanding our alienation, He is still our God. Man of himself hath no power to turn unto God; but since God invites, He surely enables. He bestows all requisite assistance, and a clear pathway has been made. (H. Melvill, B. D.)
On repentance
In the history of the children of Israel we see the perverseness and ingratitude of man, and the forbearance and goodness of God. Israels sins were peculiarly aggravated by their having been committed after repeated and wonderful deliverances, after signal chastisements and mercies. At the period of Hoseas prophecy Israels continued rebellion against God had nearly exhausted His patience toward that people. Though these words were primarily addressed to Israel, we shall consider them--
I. As conveying a gracious exhortation to all sinners to return unto the lord.
1. We must return unto the Lord with consideration. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Consider your ways.
2. With weeping and supplication. A proper review of our past follies and perverse wanderings, and of Gods mercies and patience towards us, will produce sorrow of heart, will cause tears of compunction to flow.
3. With humility. Our lofty imaginations and high opinion of ourselves must be brought low.
4. Through the Mediator. We cannot expect to find mercy unless, we seek mercy through Christ. Of this righteousness, not our own, we must make mention.
5. Without delay. This may be urged from the shortness and uncertainty of life, and from the greatness of the work which we have to do.
II. As declaring the reasonableness of the exhortation. For thou hast fallen by thine iniquity. The text is applicable to the case of backsliders who have fallen from their steadfastness. But all mankind have fallen from God. Adam fell, and in him fell all his posterity.
1. Man is fallen from the favour of God, and is under the displeasure of God.
2. Man is fallen under the dominion of sin and the curse of the law.
3. Man is fallen into the snares and power of the devil.
4. Man, if not recovered by Divine grace, will at last fall into the bottomless pit.
Apply to those who are still in their fallen state, and are wandering from God.
1. Yield to the solemn and affecting truth that you have fallen by your iniquity, and let this truth stir you up to inquire with solicitude, What must I do to be saved?
2. Listen to Gods gracious invitation, and believe His willingness to receive you.
3. Contemplate what has been done to accomplish the great work of your redemption.
4. Consider the awful doom of the finally impenitent transgressor. (E. Edwards.)
Repentance as return
The Divine love is content with nothing less than return. And nothing less and nothing else will give safety. There must not only be a cessation of the present journey, but a definite and conclusive retracement of the steps. What the prophet sighs for, and what his God so earnestly commands, is not the mere inactive terror of proceeding onwards when the fiery abyss stretches to the view, nor the attempt, while that terror lasts, to breathe a hasty vow or utter a disordered prayer. What the Divine love insists on is a decided and complete retreat, such as when, conscious of peril and aware of only one refuge, and that in God, he eagerly seeks Him with the whole heart. I will arise and go to my Father is his earnest and practical resolution. (John Eadie, D. D. , LL. D.)
A message to backsliding Israel
I. The lords address unto His backsliding ones. O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God. God glorifies His sanctifying grace in some, and His pardoning grace in others. Let the children of God be in what state they may, as it respects their acts of grace or sin, this makes no alteration in the Lords love unto them. As they have the body of sin and death dwelling within them, there is a continual propensity in their fallen natures, to slide into themselves, and to backslide from the Lord Jesus Christ. Israels case was extreme. Be could not return unto the Lord by any strength of his own. He must be fallen by his iniquity into a state and kind of desperation. This was the fruit of his iniquity. It is the Lord Himself who here speaks. He does so in the language of commiseration. From these words what an infinity of grace and blessed encouragement may be derived, so as to encourage the people of the Lord to trust and hope in Him. None but backsliders know and feel the sorrows which arise from the same.
II. One substantial reason for the return of backsliding Israel to God. O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God. It lies in their relation to Him, and His relation to them. All sin is the effect of unbelief. Every act of departure from the Lord is the fruit of it; let it be mental, or let it be open and manifest. Backsliders need great encouragement, even from the Lord Himself, to return to Him. He is pleased to give it them. The interest the Lord God hath in His people can never be broken in upon, neither can their interest in Him ever be impaired or cease. It is always the same on both sides. The intercourse between the Lord and His people may be interrupted. But God is immutable in His love and mercy.
III. The reason made use of to hasten Gods peoples return to Him. Thou hast fallen by thine iniquity. The mercy of God in Christ Jesus exceeds the very uttermost of our minds to receive any adequate ideas of. Guilt in the conscience produces fear in the heart; so long as we indulge the same it weakens our faith and keeps us from Christ. (Samuel Eyles Pierce.)
A call to repentant return
In Hoseas days idolatry was first universally set up and countenanced by regal power. Here we have--
I. An exhortation to repentance, with the motives enforcing the same. Every word hath its weight, and in a manner is an argument to enforce this returning. Israel is a word of covenant. Return unto the Lord Jehovah, who is the chief good, the fountain of all good. Thy God in covenant, who will make good His gracious covenant unto thee. Thou hast fallen by thine iniquity; thine own inventions have brought these miseries upon thee, and none but God can help thee out of these miseries. God comes not as a sudden storm upon His people, but gives them warning before He smites them. He is a God of long-suffering, and has a special regard to His own children. Another point--
II. The best provision for preventing of destruction is spiritual means. Of all spiritual means the best is, to return to the Lord. In this returning there must be a stop. To make this stop there must be examination and consideration, humiliation and displeasure against ourselves, judging and taking revenge of ourselves, for our ways and courses. There must be a resolution to overcome impediments. In the original it is a very emphatic, Return even to Jehovah. Do not only begin to return, but so return as you never cease coming till you come to Jehovah. Where there is a falling into sin there will be a falling into misery and judgment. The cause of every mans misery is his own sin. Then take heed of sin. Pray to God to make our way plain before us, and not to lead us into temptation. Take with you words. They who would have help and comfort against all sins and sorrows must come to God with words of prayer. Barrenness and want of words to go unto God are blameworthy. This is for consolation: if they can take words, and can pray well, they shall speed well. (R. Sibbes, D. D.)
Sin separates from God
You may sometimes see in the ocean a pile of rock rising steeply to a considerable height, and having on it here and there, where a patch of soil covers it, the remains of what was once a luxuriant vegetation. If you examine it, and also the mainland a few furlongs off, you will come to the conclusion that they were at one time, now long gone by, united together. They have become separated by the action of the sea. At first there was but a small inlet, scarcely large enough for a single boat to anchor in; this was gradually enlarged by the incessant beating of the surf until it became a broad bay, and at last the sea, striking with more and more force upon the cliffs every year, cut its way completely through, and now what was once part of the mainland is but a solitary and desolate isle. One of the most direct and appalling effects of sin is the breach which it makes between the human heart and God. Man is made in the likeness of God; he is an offspring of the Divine thought and love; he is endowed with the same moral and spiritual capacities as those which God Himself possesses; but let sin be suffered to find an entrance into his heart, and, like the gnawing, devouring, destructive sea, it will eat away all the holy and sacred ties which bind his:heart to God, and cut him off from God, and leave him inwardly lonely and desolate. (B. Wilkinson, F. G. S.)
How to return to an earnest Christian life
As long as the bright summer sun shines into the forest glades the fungus has no chance to flourish; but when the sunshine wanes, in the months of autumn, the woods are filled with these strange products of decay. It is because we drift from God that our lives are the prey to numberless and nameless ills. Make the best of all new starts, and returning to the more earnest habits of earlier days, or beginning them from now, give yourself to God, believing that He will receive and welcome you, without a word of remonstrance or a moment of interval. Form habits of morning and evening prayer; especially in the morning get time for deep communion with God, waiting at His footstool, or in the perusal of the Bible, till He speaks to you. Take up again your habits of attendance at the house of God: in the morning and the evening go with the multitude that, with the voice of praise, keeps holy-day, and in the afternoon find some niche of the Christian service, in your home or elsewhere. Then, inasmuch as you do not wish to be a slip-carriage, which, when the couplings are unfastened, runs for a little behind the express, but gets slower and slower till it comes to a stand, ask the grace of the Holy Spirit to confirm these holy desires, keeping you true to them, causing you to be steadfast, immovable, and set on maintaining life on a higher level. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.)
God always watching for our return
Bianconi, the introducer of the car system in Ireland, on leaving his home in Italy, found his most trying leave-taking in separating from his mother. She fainted as he left her. Her last words were words which he never forgot: When you remember me, think of me as waiting at this window watching for your return. We may think of God in the same way if we have departed from Him at all. In spite of all our faults, all our sins, He is always watching for our return, for His mercy endureth for ever.
For thou hast fallen by thine iniquity.
Our fall by sin
The sight of fallen greatness is exceedingly affecting to the mind of a thoughtful man, and excites inquiries concerning the cause or causes of it. The prophet looked on the kingdom of Israel fallen from its past strength and honour, and declares the cause of the fall to be--iniquity.
I. The fall by sin is the most grievous in human experience.
1. The fall by sin is from the highest relationships the soul can enjoy. No relationships, how distinguished and valued soever, can equal those of God, There are none so essential to the souls good and safety. Without holiness no true relationship with Him can be sustained.
2. The fall by sin is from lifes great purpose. Short as life is, it has a great mission to fulfil. Eternal life has to be secured. The worlds truest good has to be promoted. Sin causes a lamentable failure.
3. The fall by sin is a loss of truest power. A right life wields a great influence. No power can be compared with that of a holy character. This power is lost by sin.
4. The fall by sin is from truest content of soul. The hallowed quiet and peace depart. Painful misgivings and pangs of remorse tear the breast. The consciousness of guilt prevents the light and joy of hope.
II. This fall is the inevitable result of sin. The course of sin is the act of mans free will. But if he choose the path he cannot escape the ruin.
1. The path of sin leads to ruin.
(1) The pleasures of the way cannot avert the consequences.
(2) The fall may be delayed, but it will come.
2. None can pursue the path of sin and escape the ruin. The individual cannot; the Church cannot; the nation cannot.
III. For this fall man himself is responsible. He falls by his own iniquity,
1. None can compel another to sin.
2. As none can compel another to sin, so none can compel his fall.
Apply--
1. Sin with such power and consequences should have our intensest hate, and should be guarded against.
2. He who is fallen should forsake his sin, and seek mercy and grace from God. Gods mercy can cover the past, and His grace can sanctify and secure the future. (Rombeth.)
Message to the remnant
So the admonition of Hosea has ended, and the note of destruction has been sounded. It only remains to look for a remnant out of the fallen nation, which by repentance and faithfulness may plead with God for their own rescue if not for the nations restoration. Hope, unwilling to be quenched in the pious patriarchs breast, suggests words of returning to God, to relinquishment of human politics, and reliance on His faithfulness. To such a remnant, be it small or great, the everlasting mercy of God offers out of the jaws of ruin, as out of death and the grave, the possibility of return to Him who is not afar from every one of us. If there are any that will understand, let them not charge their Maker with folly. He has dealt justly by sinful Israel, and will deal mercifully with all men repentant. (Rowland Williams, D. D.)
Gods call to the fallen
God seems to find an argument in the very fact of our fall. He is moved with compassion at the spectacle. He sees from what a height to what a depth man has fallen.
1. The call to return implies that we had wandered away. Our fall has indeed been occasioned by our wandering. All sin originates in the apostasy of the human heart from God. Sin would never have entered human hearts, and defiled the lives of men, if man had been true to his primal relations with God. As with the race, so with the individual. Moral deterioration and corruption naturally and necessarily ensue from the apostasy of the soul from God. Evil works naturally flow from the corrupt condition. The fallen soul not only loses contact and fellowship with God, but comes under the influence of a certain feeling of aversion, and almost of antipathy, towards God which leads him to shrink from the very thought of God. The apostate man is fallen not only in position, but in character. Innocence has been forfeited instead of being developed, and sin reigns where moral beauty should be crowned. Man needs no revelation to convince him of his fall. He alone of all the animals fails to live up to his own proper ideal, and violates in many cases systematically the laws of his own nature. Fallen in position and character, he is fallen in conduct also. Then the first thing needful for the fallen and falling is to return to God. He who invites us wants us to come back to Him. (W. Hay Aitken, M. A.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On vv1–2 Hosea 12 - Hos_14:1
THE FINAL ARGUMENT
Hosea 12 - Hos_14:1
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THE impassioned call with which the last chapter closed was by no means an assurance of salvation: "How am I to give thee, up, Ephraim? how am I to let thee go, Israel? On the contrary, it was the anguish of Love, when it hovers over its own on the brink of the destruction to which their willfulness has led them, and before relinquishing them would seek, if possible, some last way to redeem. Surely that fatal morrow and the peoples mad leap into it are not inevitable! At least, before they take the leap, let the prophet go back once more upon the moral situation of today, go back once more upon the past of the people, and see if he can find anything else to explain that bias to apostasy {Hos_11:7} which has brought them to this fatal brink-anything else which may move them to repentance even there. So in chapters 12 and 13 Hosea turns upon the now familiar trail of his argument, full of the Divine jealousy, determined to give the people one other chance to turn; but if they will not, he at least will justify Gods relinquishment of them. The chapters throw even a brighter light upon the temper and habits of that generation. They again explore Israels ancient history for causes of the present decline; and, in especial, they cite the spiritual experience of the Father of the Nation, as if to show that what of repentance was possible for him is possible for his posterity also. But once more all hope is seen to be in vain; and Hoseas last travail with his obstinate people closes in a doom even more awful than its predecessors."
The division into chapters is probably correct; but while chapter 13 is well ordered and clear, the arrangement, and, in parts, the meaning of chapter 12 are very obscure.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v1 CRITICAL NOTES.] The guilt of the sinful nation and…
CRITICAL NOTES.] The guilt of the sinful nation and the punishment awaiting have been described: now there is a call to conversion, and a promise that God will bless abundantly.
Hos_14:1. Return] Heb. intensive, expressing strong desire. Unto] Lit. up to, not merely towards the Lord. “Great is repentance which maketh men to reach quite up to the throne of glory,” is a Jewish saying.
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Hos_14:2. Words] Not empty, yet outward gifts not required; only words, and these even found. Rec-] Lit. receive the good, viz. the words of sincere repentance, given by thyself (1Ch_29:14). Calves] i.e. our lips shall be for calves. Instead of offering sacrifice we give thanksgiving and praise, the fruit of our lips (Heb_13:5).
Hos_14:3. Save] Israel relied upon Assyria and Egypt; now horses (warlike power) and the work of our hands (idolatry) are entirely renounced. Fatherless] Descriptive of Israel’s condition without God; a reason for turning from idols, and an inducement to prayer (Exo_22:22; Deu_10:18).
HOMILETICS
REAL CONVERSION TO GOD DESCRIBED.—Hos_14:1-3
There is a change in the words of the prophet now. Wrath and threatening are past, and “sweetness and light,” like the sun, burst from the dark clouds. Every word of the invitation is full of mercy, urgent upon Israel and upon all who have gone astray. God is still unchangeable and true to his covenant. There is hope for all who sincerely repent and return to him. The character of this return is clearly described in the text.
I. Its necessity. “For thou hast fallen.” This is the first dawn of light upon the sinner. God discovers to him the abyss into which he has fallen.
1. He has fallen by iniquity: not a mere stumble, but a fall. All sin is a deep fall. A fall from God into idolatry; from holiness into guilt; from honour to disgrace. A fall from which we cannot raise ourselves. It is a pit of distress, “an horrible pit and miry clay” (Psa_40:2), out of which God alone can deliver us. “Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do thy first works.”
2. He has fallen by his own iniquity. Nations often ascribe their calamity to civil dissension, foolish rules, and disuse of military discipline: to the cruelty of the enemy and reverse of fortune; but the fall is caused by opposition to God, and contempt of his word. Individuals blame their circumstances and their fate; but sin is their own act and deed. The fall is the result of their own conduct. The sinner eats the fruit of his own way, and is filled with his own devices. But though fallen he need not stay in his sin. The way of return is open. The invitation is given. “Return unto the Lord thy God.”
II. Its nature. “Return (up to) the Lord thy God.” True conversion is abandonment of all sin and restoration to all good.
1. Idolatry is abandoned. “Neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, Ye are our gods.” It is folly to trust to creatures which God has made. How much greater folly to adore things which we ourselves have made. The penitent renounces all idolatry, and views God as the Lord his God. Williams gives a graphic account in his missionary enterprises of the conversion of a chief from idolatry. Romatane decreed the destruction of his temples, the conflagration of his gods, and the erection of a house for God. We must not pride ourselves in monuments of genius, gains of the world, and external performances in religion. Consecration to God excludes every kind of worship to strange gods. “Make no mention of the name of other gods, neither let it be heard out of thy mouth” (Exo_23:13).
2. Former sins are renounced. Israel were guilty of two things—reliance upon foreign aid and upon their own warlike strength. (a) Human dependence is renounced. “Asshur shall not save us.” They will betake themselves no more to an arm of flesh: for vain is the help of man. Human helps must never take the place of God. All merit and self-righteousness must be renounced. The best proof of true repentance is utter forsaking of former sin. (b) Dependence upon self is renounced. The horse was a symbol of their own, as well as foreign strength. “A horse is a vain thing for safety, neither shall he deliver any by his great strength.” The strongest self-defences are nothing when most needed. Sennacherib with all his cavalry was no match for the angel of God. We must not look to creature strength, to personal merit, for salvation. “The sufficiency of my merit is to know that my merit is not sufficient,” says Quarles. “Some put their trust in chariots, and some in horses, but we will remember the name of the Lord our God.”
3. Entire return to God is seen. The true penitent rises up from his fall, feels that he cannot stay in distance, and returns right up to God. Many vow and never perform, resolve and resolve again, but never forsake their sins. Others shed tears, feel desires, and take some steps towards repentance, and conclude that they are safe. The prodigal started home, did not merely turn his face, nor stop half-way; but “came to his father,” up to his father’s house, quite home.—Many come out of Egypt who never enter Canaan; put on garments of sorrow, who never rend their hearts and return to God. Half-conversions are unsafe; “almost a Christian” is not enough. Nothing short of actual conversion will do; an entire change is necessary. Whatever distance we travel, however high we mount in religion, if we come short of Christ we cannot be saved. “If thou wilt return, O Israel, saith the Lord, return unto me” (Jer_4:1).
III. Its method. “Take with you words and turn to the Lord.” Words are not necessary to God. We do not induce him to bless us by mere words. We may argue and persuade men to grant a thing; but words without meaning are sounding brass and tinkling cymbal.
1. Take words of confession. God does not require costly gifts; nor burnt-offerings of goats and bullocks; but a humble and contrite heart; a full and free confession of sin. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
2. Take words of prayer. “Say unto him.” God himself supplies the words and directs our hearts. We are sensible of inaptitude and ignorance; but he bestows the spirit of prayer, and orders our speech before him (Job_37:19); Method is helpful in everything, and the ordering of words in prayer, words marshalled like military ranks, may quicken and discipline. “Method is the soul of business.” Ask for two things. (a) Take away iniquity. The true penitent is most concerned about sin, desires to be free from its consequences and dominion, to be entirely cleansed and preserved in the future. “All iniquity.” We must not have partial zeal, but strike at all sin, great and small. God must take it away from our hearts and lives. We can neither remove its guilt nor destroy its power. God’s grace can deliver, renew and save. “If the Son make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” (b) Receive us graciously. When God has pardoned sin and imparted grace, he accepts our imperfect services. “Give what thou demandest and then require what thou wilt,” says Augustine. The gifts are from God and then received by him. “For all things come of thee, and of thine own have we given thee.”
3. Take words of thanksgiving. “So will we render the calves, i.e. the fruit, of our lips, giving thanks to his name” (Heb_13:15). Those that receive much from God “will offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually.” The expressions of the lips will spring from a grateful heart. Lip service without sincerity of heart is an abomination to God: but a holy life is a perpetual thank-offering. The sacrifices of the law are abolished; but God’s goodness lays us under deep obligation to praise him. The penitent feels that he cannot praise too much, and resolves that the language of his lips and the fruit of his life shall be given to God. “Excellent speech becometh not a fool: much less do lying lips a prince.”
IV. Its motive.
1. God will hear prayer. This we may presume, and hence the request. “Take words.” But this truth is specially revealed and taught in the word of God. The grand fact which distinguishes God from heathen deities is the fact that he is accessible. “O thou that hearest prayer!” We have every encouragement and every motive to pray. “It is the first thing wherewith a righteous life beginneth, and the last wherewith it doth end. So much of our lives is celestial and divine as we spend in the exercise of prayer,” writes Hooker.
2. God will have mercy upon the miserable. “With thee the fatherless findeth mercy.” Men without God are fatherless; orphans in a sinful world. Israel was helpless, and the prey to every oppressor. The sinner forsaking God forsakes his own mercy. Christ does not leave his people orphans, or comfortless (Joh_14:18). God, “the Father of the fatherless,” will have compassion on returning sinners. Men are cruel, but God is kind, and reserves his greatest mercy for greatest need. God governs not as an absolute monarch, but as a tender father. He has greater pleasure in showing his goodness than his power. “The poor committeth himself unto thee: thou art the helper of the fatherless.”
HOMILETIC HINTS AND OUTLINES
Hos_14:1. Fallen. The holy contrasted with the sinful state of man. Fallen in nature and condition, in pursuit and desire. God calls men to him by his prophets and his providence. “O Israel.” “It is well to hear when God calls through his deeds; but it is better to hear his words.”
Return.
1. The object. “The Lord thy God,”—not to a strange god. The God of mercy, and the fountain of all good.
2. The reason. “Thou hast fallen.” Thoughts of a fall should make us think of rising from our sad condition.
Hos_14:2. Take words. The influence of words in prayer—
1. Not necessary to inform God of our wants.
2. A means of stirring up and relieving our own hearts. Words require more exertion than thoughts, and influence our minds by their sounds.
3. Exercise a power over others often when uttered—prompts them to kindred feelings and acts, and quickens them with pathos, passion, and thought.
4. When our words accord with our hearts and the Scriptures we shall be encouraged.
5. God supplies us with words adapted to our varied feelings and necessities. Come to God with his own words. Plead help in his own promises, and you shall find it. “Men must as well look to their words, as to their feet, when they come before God; and see that their affections in prayer be not without answerable expressions in lips.”
Say unto him. Mentally and vocally, with spirit and speech. Prayer is not the labour of the lips, but the travail of the heart, and God hath promised to answer his people before they call (Isa_65:24). By calling upon his name we neither inform him of what he knows not, nor move him to show us more mercy than he intendeth. But yet prayers are necessary, as a means which God will have used, that he may receive what he of free mercy giveth. Besides, it prepareth us holily to enjoy the things received; and makes us ready either to wait for them or to want them; and to be content, that he may be glorified, though we be not gratified [Trapp].
Prayer to God to take away all iniquity, contains a confession of sin and expresses our faith, that we place our whole hope of recovering our lost purity and of obtaining salvation in the mercy of Christ. Receive good. What other good can we offer, than detestation of our past sin, with burning desire of holiness? This is the burnt-offering. Lastly, we will repay the calves of our lips, is the promise of that solemn vow, most acceptable to God, whereby we bind ourselves to keep in continual remembrance all the benefits of God, and to render ceaseless praise to the Lord, who has bestowed on us such priceless gifts [Pusey].
Hos_14:3. Fatherless. A plea for orphans. God takes special care of them in his law (Exo_22:22.) and providence (Psa_68:4-5; Psa_27:10).
1. A description of the sinner’s condition. Without the love, help, and guidance of a father.
2. A display of God’s mercy. When earthly fathers sleep in the grave, God watches over and provides for orphan children. This should be a motive to penitence, prayer, and daily trust in God.
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 14
Hos_14:2. “Words are the daughters of earth, and deeds are the sons of heaven.”
Hos_14:3. Gods. At the introduction of Christianity into this country, a general council was summoned to consider the new doctrines of Paulinus. All present were unanimous as to the utter inefficiency of the gods whom they worshipped. Coifi, the pagan high-priest, in an eloquent harangue proposed their overthrow, and casting aside his priestly garments, called for arms, which Saxon priests were forbidden to wield, and for a horse, which they were not permitted to mount; and thus accoutred, galloped to the shrine at Godmundham, where the chief idol stood, hurled his lance into the enclosure, and profaned the consecrated shrine. The people, encouraged by the example of their priest, destroyed the sacred temple.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain On v1 While the freeness of God’s mercy is the leading…
Hos 14:1
While the freeness of God’s mercy is the leading idea suggested by these words, it is not the only one; on the contrary, the condition of our nature is accurately expressed, as is the mode by which alone it can be ameliorated.
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I. Consider, first, the state into which man has brought himself. There are few things more important, whether we view mankind collectively or individually, than the fastening on the sinner all the blame of his sin. God may invite the prodigal to return, but God has nothing to do with his wandering away into the desert. Thou hast not fallen through an inherent inability to stand; He has so constituted thee that thou mightest have stood. Thou hast not fallen through the ground being slippery, and thick-set with snares; He placed thee where thy footing was firm, and thy pathway direct. Upon man himself come home wholly all the effects of the fall. In whatever degree there may be a necessity of sinning, in no degree is there a necessity of perishing. God places no man in such a moral condition that his falling into perdition is unavoidable. Let a man have once heard of Christ, and from that moment forward salvation is within arm’s length of this man. Is he willing to be saved? Then he may be saved. Is he unwilling? Then, at least, he perishes by his own choice; and our righteous, and merciful, and redeeming God is clear in judgment when He leaves the obdurate one to the fruit of his own folly.
II. Observe the mode of deliverance, as it may be gathered from the invitation: "O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God." (1) The fall did not do away with God’s claim on man. Man could not cease to belong to God as a creature, when man had given himself to Satan; and this important fact is assumed, if not asserted, in the words of our text. The party addressed is the fallen, but the party addressing is still the Lord his God. Disobedience has removed man from the centre to the outskirts of the universe, but in one great sense it could not remove him from God, "who is that infinite sphere," as expressed by an old writer, "whose centre is everywhere, and circumference nowhere." (2) We gather an inference of consolation from the fact that thou, "Israel, hast fallen by thine iniquity." There is the groundwork of hope, that God will yet look mercifully upon us and restore us, seeing that, notwithstanding our alienation, He is still our God. The message, "Return unto the Lord thy God," is full of consolation, because it invites us to the Being from whom all our rebellion has not been able to divide us. (3) That which God invites us to do must be possible for us to do. If God calls on us to return we are not at liberty to question that there lies no impossibility against our returning. Now this assumes two things: (i) that God has removed all existing obstacles: (ii) that He bestows all requisite assistance in the performance of it.
H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit, No. 2143.
Hos 14:1-2
How to return to God.
I. The first act of the awakened soul is usually an act of prayer, and it is most natural, and indeed most proper, that it should be so. The very act of expressing our need has a tendency both to bring about clearer views of what it is that we need, and to intensify our desire. Inward silence and reserve tend to benumb the faculties and to check the rising desires of the soul, when the outpouring of earnest supplication seems to stir us to our inmost depths.
II. Notice the urgency of this utterance, which God’s love puts as it were in our mouths. There is only one kind of prayer that is at all appropriate in the lips of an awakened sinner, who finds himself without God in the world, but who desires to arise and go to His Father: and that is the urgent, specific entreaty for present forgiveness and salvation.
III. The divinely suggested utterance of our text is not only an urgent prayer, but it is also the expression of a distinct change in our moral attitude towards God. It marks the end of the life of aversion from God, and the beginning of a true conversion to God. "Take with you words" says the voice of Heavenly Love, "and turn unto the Lord." Let there be a distinct reversal of your former attitude of independence and alienation.
IV. When thus with all our hearts we truly seek Him, it will not be long before we become aware of something that seems at first to rise like a barrier between Him and us, shutting us off from all contact with Him. What about our sins? This experience is evidently foreseen in our text, where we have a most definite and specific request for an immediate and most necessary benefit. There stands the barrier, and nothing can be done until it is removed; and so the Father’s love bids us pray, "Take away all iniquity."
When this fatal barrier is removed, then is the way clear and open to the Father’s house; and may we not say into the Father’s arms? "Receive us graciously." We need not fear going home to God. Their are no taunts on His lips, no frown on His brow; only infinite tenderness in His heart. He is too great to be otherwise than gracious; He has done too much to open up the new and living way not to be ready to welcome us home when at length we do come.
W. Hay Aitken, The Mission Pulpit, No. 72.
References: Hos 14:1, Hos 14:2.—W. Aitken, The Love of the Father, p. 113. Hos 14:1-3.—G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 162.
Hos 14:2
There is a porch even within the sanctuary of repentance. There is a pause of preparation, words selected, distinct movement, accurate speaking, an order in prayer, a new relation to God recognized, an audience asked, reception given,—leading up to self-dedication.
I. Words are immense helps to thoughts. You will never think accurately, nor think continuously, nor think without wandering, without words. Therefore, never be indifferent to the language in which you clothe your religion. "Take with you words."
II. When the words are ready, "turn." Adjust the attitude of your mind. It only wants a real "turn." The back where the face was, and the face where the back was; looking the other way,—away from the world, away from the past, straight into the love of Christ.
III. Words are sacrifice. It is a pleasant and a holy thought that we all of us carry about with us wherever we go the means of sacrifice to God. We should offer all we have. Our lips should make sacrifice. Sacrifice, in its high propitiatory sense we cannot, and we need not, offer sacerdotally. There is no sacrifice in any Christian worship. We only plead one sacrifice, made once and for ever for the sins of the whole world. But spiritually every one of us is a priest. And there is not a believer who has not a sacrifice to offer: himself, his heart, his life, his soul, his body, his lips.
J. Vaughan, Sermons, 10th series, p. 173.
References: Hos 14:3.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxviii., No. 1695. Hos 14:4.—Ibid., vol. ix., No. 501, vol. xvi., No. 920; Ibid., Morning by Morning, p. 296. Hos 14:4-8.—Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. xii., p. 203.
Hos 14:5
This is a gracious promise to a penitent and returning people. Israel had fallen by her iniquity; but "He who pardoneth iniquity, transgression, and sin" had earnestly exhorted her to arise and return by repentance and righteousness to Himself; to take with her words of humble confession, of earnest entreaty, of renewed covenant engagement, of grateful, loving trust, and of solemn vow and promise for the future. And it is on the supposition that that gracious exhortation has been laid to heart that the Lord comes forth with abundant and adapted promises, among them the promise of the text.
I. The dew falls very quietly and gently. So is God to. His people when He comes to revive and bless them. The soul must have times of recruiting and replenishment, and probably times of silence. The filling of the hidden springs, the growing of the secret inward strength, will be, the "man knoweth not how," as is the growing of the flowers, as is the falling of the dew.
II. The dew falls very copiously. In the land of Israel it falls much more abundantly than in this country. God’s grace to a Church in a time of spiritual quickening is very copious and full. When hearts are opened to Him in expectation they never close again in collapse and disappointment.
III. The dew is very refreshing. It makes dying nature live. When God comes in fulfilment of this promise there is a recovery of sinking strength, a kindling of dying graces, a returning to the first love, a doing of the first works. To those who are so visited there is a newness in religion every day.
IV. The dew is fertilizing. This silent, copious, refreshing agent works fruitfulness out of all growing things. And when God is as the dew unto Israel, His final end is that the plants of His right hand’s planting may become fruitful.
V. Note, as another analogy, the nearness to us in both cases of the reviving influence—God does not fetch the dew from stars, or from fountains in the skies. He condenses and distils it out of the atmosphere. May not this remind us how we are surrounded with a very atmosphere of grace, which holds all precious things in readiness to be dropped upon us when God shall command it so? The word of life is "nigh unto us," as near the soul as the atmosphere is to the body.
A. Raleigh, Quiet Resting Places, p. 23.
Reference: Hos 14:5.—Preacher’s Lantern, vol. ii., p. 634.
Hos 14:5-6
I God begins: "I will be as the dew unto Israel." Of dew we may notice several things. (1) It is beautiful and glistening; but the process by which it is formed, and the way by which it comes, are hidden from us,—as behind a veil, in mystery. (2) Dew is always proportionate. The greater the need, the larger the supply; the hotter the day, the thicker it lies; and by refreshing where it falls it tends to vitality and growth. (3) And it comes faithfully, morning and evening, wherever it is wanted, and never fails. That is like God. How the Holy Spirit distils upon us, or why, we cannot tell. The commencement of the Divine life and its supplies are perfectly inscrutable. The workings are secret, but the results are patent. And just as I want it, I find it. It comes fullest in the morning of our hottest conflicts, and the fiercer and most searching days of trial have their richest drops. At evening what is the most worked is the most renovated. And without it all the soul’s verdure and all the soul’s life would wither and die.
II. Now trace the consequences on the man himself. The metaphor is sustained. It is by the dewlike, gentle workings of God’s Spirit, by myriads of drops, each imperceptibly small. "He shall grow as the lily and cast forth his roots as Lebanon," etc. There are five things: growth, strength, expansion, beauty, fragrance.
III. They that dwell under His shadow shall return. We all cast our shadows; and the influence we carry, the effect we produce,—may be, and should be, and must be, always for good and for God. And this is the characteristic of the Christian, that "they that dwell under his shadow shall return"—return to what they have lost: return to peace; return to that good land; return to Canaan; return to their God.
J. Vaughan, Sermons, 10th series, p. 181.
Hosea’s picture of what the state of Israel would be, in returning to righteousness and becoming reconciled to heaven, is composed—curiously and daintily composed—of rich colours, drawn from various sources. To his glowing anticipation, no single image sufficed to represent the approaching glory. For an adequate portrayal of the brilliant prospect which his eyes beheld, he had to borrow and cull from this quarter and that—to gather and combine many things—selecting here a little and there a little, and binding the medley together, in one. And it is his eclecticism here that I find inviting and suggestive; his free flitting from object to object, in order to collect materials for an image of perfection.
I. It reminds me of what we need to recognize and act upon, both in the intercourse of life and in the pursuit of truth. No man is worth accepting wholly, and every man has a grace and glory of his own that is worth searching out. See on the one hand, how we renounce and shut ourselves up from canine, snarling, disagreeable people as though there were no lingering lines of beauty in them with which to cultivate acquaintance. See on the other hand, our tendency to hero-worship; to insulate and set up on high and warn off criticism from the man who has shown himself grand and supreme in two or three points, or perhaps in a single quality: how we foolishly assume him to be equally grand and supreme all round on all sides. What is needed is, that we should be more ready and quick to discern the special grace, and the consequent essentialness, of every unit in the crowd, and less ready and quick to confine ourselves to any.
II. The perfect man is here, but not to be brought together and expressed in any single personality. We can approximate towards securing the benefit and use of him by association, uniting in work, study, and intercourse, what we each have—our various distinctive characters and attainments. Instances of this may be seen in politics, in Church fellowship, in differing religious views. What we need in order to a growing discernment of the universe of spiritual truth among us is, comprehension—the comprehension within our circle of intercourse, of as many visions and impressions of earnest brother-souls as possible.
S. A. Tipple, Echoes of Spoken Words, p. 187.
References: Hos 14:5-7.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. vi., No. 342; Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. xxii., 348. Hos 14:7.—J. Keble, Sermons for Holy Week, p. 163. Hos 14:8.—A. Maclaren, Contemporary Pulpit, vol. iii., p. 159; Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxiii., No. 1339; vol. x., No. 557; Ibid., Morning by Morning, p. 252. Hos 14:9.—J. M. Gibson, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxxii., p. 344.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On v1 Hos 14:1 - Hos 14:9.
Hosea
ISRAEL RETURNING
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Hos 14:1 - Hos 14:9.
Hosea is eminently the prophet of divine love and of human repentance. Both streams of thought are at their fullest in this great chapter. In Hos 14:1 - Hos 14:3 the very essence of true return to God is set forth in the prayer which Israel is exhorted to offer, while in Hos 14:4 - Hos 14:8 the forgiving love of God and its blessed results are portrayed with equal poetical beauty and spiritual force. Hos 14:9 closes the chapter and the book with a kind of epilogue.
I. The summons to repentance.
‘Israel,’ of course, here means the Northern Kingdom, with which Hosea’s prophecies are chiefly occupied. ‘Thou hast fallen by thine iniquity’-that is the lesson taught by all its history, and in a deeper sense it is the lesson of all experience. Sin brings ruin for nations and individuals, and the plain teachings of each man’s own life exhort each to ‘return unto the Lord.’ We have all proved the vanity and misery of departing from Him; surely, if we are not drawn by His love, we might be driven by our own unrest, to go back to God.
The Prophet anticipates the clear accents of the New Testament call to repentance in his expansion of what he meant by returning. He has nothing to say about sacrifices, nor about self-reliant efforts at moral improvement. ‘Take with you words,’ not ‘the blood of bulls and goats.’ Confession is better than sacrifice. What words are they which will avail? Hosea teaches the penitent’s prayer. It must begin with the petition for forgiveness, which implies recognition of the petitioner’s sin. The cry, ‘Take away all iniquity,’ does not specify sins, but masses the whole black catalogue into one word. However varied the forms of our transgressions, they are in principle one, and it is best to bind them all into one ugly heap, and lay it at God’s feet. We have to confess not only sins, but sin, and the taking away of it includes divine cleansing from its power, as well as divine forgiveness of its guilt. Hosea bids Israel ask that God would take away all iniquity; John pointed to ‘the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.’ But beyond forgiveness and cleansing, the penitent heart will seek that God would ‘accept the good’ in it, which springs up by His grace, when the evil has been washed from it, like flowers that burst from soil off which the matted under-growth of poisonous jungle has been cleared. Mere negative absence of ‘evil’ is not all that we should desire or exhibit; there must be positive good; and however sinful may have been the past, we are not too bold when we ask and expect that we may be made able to produce ‘good,’ which shall be fragrant as sweet incense to God.
Petitions are followed by vows. On the one hand, the experience of forgiveness and cleansing will put a new song in our mouths, and instead of animal sacrifices, we shall render the praise which is better than ‘calves’ laid on the altar. Perhaps the Septuagint rendering of that difficult phrase ‘the calves of our lips,’ which is given in Heb 13:15, ‘the fruit of our lips,’ is preferable. In either case, the same thought appears-that the penitent’s experience of forgiving and restoring love makes ‘the tongue of the dumb sing,’ and it will bind men’s hearts more closely to God than anything besides can do, so that their old inclinations to false reliances and idolatries drop away from them. The old fable tells us that the storm made the traveller wrap his cloak closer round him, but the sunshine made him throw it off. Judgments often make men cling more closely to their sins, but forgiving mercy makes them ‘cast off the works of darkness.’ The men who had experienced that in God, the Israel, which by its sins had brought down the punishment of His repudiation of being its father {Hos 1:9}, had found mercy, would no longer feel temptation to turn to Assyria for help, nor to seek protection from Egypt’s cavalry, nor to debase their manhood by calling stocks and stones, the work of their own hands, their gods. What earthly sweetness will tempt, or what earthly danger will affright, the heart that is feeling the bliss of union with God? Would Judas’s thirty pieces of silver attract the disciple reclining on Jesus’ bosom? We are most firmly bound to God, not by our resolves, but by our experience of His all-sufficient mercy. Fill the heart with that wine of the kingdom, and bitter or poisonous draughts will find no entrance into the cup.
II. God’s welcoming answer.
The very abruptness of its introduction, without any explanation as to the speaker, suggests how swiftly and joyfully the Father hastens to meet the returning prodigal while he is yet afar off. Like pent-up waters rushing forth as soon as a barrier is taken away, God’s love pours itself out immediately. His answer ever gives more than the penitent asks-robe and ring and shoes, and a feast to him who dared not expect more than a place among the hired servants. He gives not by drops, but in floods, answering the prayer for the taking away of iniquity by the promise to heal backsliding, going beyond desires and hopes in the gift of love which asks for no recompense, is drawn forth by no desert, but wells up from the depths of God’s heart, and strengthens the new, tremulous trust of the penitent by the assurance that every trace of anger is effaced from God’s heart.
The blessings consequent on the gift of God’s love are described in lovely imagery, drawn, like Hosea’s other abundant similes, from nature, and especially from trees and flowers. The source of all fruitfulness is a divine influence, which comes silently and refreshing as the ‘dew,’ or, rather, as the ‘night mist,’ a phenomenon occurring in Palestine in summer, and being, accurately, rolling masses of vapour brought from the Mediterranean, which counteract the dry heat and keep vegetation alive. The influences which refresh and fructify our souls must fall in many a silent hour of meditation and communion. They will effloresce into manifold shapes of beauty and fruitfulness, of which the Prophet signalises three. The lily may stand for beauty of purity, though botanists differ as to the particular flower meant. Christians should present to the world ‘whatsoever things are lovely,’ and see to it that their goodness is attractive. But the fragrant, pure lily has but shallow roots, and beauty is not all that a character needs in this world of struggle and effort. So there are to be both the lily’s blossom and roots like Lebanon. The image may refer to the firm buttresses of the widespread foot-hills, from which the sovereign summits of the great mountain range rise, or, as is rather suggested by the accompanying similes from the vegetable world, it may refer to the cedars growing there. Their roots are anchored deep and stretch far underground; therefore they rear towering heads, and spread broad shelves of dark foliage, safe from any blast. Our lives must be deep rooted in God if they are to be strong. Boots generally spread beneath the soil about as far as branches extend above it. There should be at least as much underground, ‘hid with Christ in God,’ as is visible to the world.
But beauty and strength are not all. So Hosea thinks of yet another of the characteristic growths of Palestine, the olive, which is not strikingly beautiful in form, with its strangely gnarled, contorted stem, its feeble branches, and its small, pointed, pale leaves, but has the beauty of fruitfulriess, and is green when other trees are bare. Such ‘beauty’ should be ours, and will be if the ‘dew’ falls on us.
In Hos 14:7 there are difficulties, both as to the application of the ‘his,’ and as to the reading and rendering of some of the words. But the general drift is clear. It prolongs the tones of the foregoing verses, keeping to the same class of images, and expressing fruitfulness, abundant as the corn and precious as the grape, and fragrance like the ‘bouquet’ of the choicest wine.
Hos 14:8 offers great difficulties on any interpretation. The supplement ‘shall say’ is questionable, and it is doubtful whether Ephraim is the speaker at all, and whether, if so, he speaks all the four clauses, and who speaks any or all of them, if not he. To the present writer, it seems best to take the supplement as right, and possible to regard the whole verse as spoken by Ephraim, though perhaps the last clause is meant to be God’s utterance. The meaning will then come out as follows. The penitent Israel again speaks, after the gracious promises preceding. The tribal name is, as usual in Hosea, equivalent to Israel, whose penitent cry we heard at the beginning of the passage. Now we hear his glad response to God’s abundant answer. ‘What have I to do any more with idols?’ He had vowed {Hos 14:3} to have no more to do with them, and the resolve is deepened by the rich grace held forth to him. Hosea had lamented Ephraim’s mad adherence to ‘his idols’ {Hos 4:17}, but now the union is dissolved, and by penitence and reception of God’s grace, he is joined to the Lord, and parted from them. His renunciation of idolatry is based, in the second clause, on his experience of what God can do, and on his having heard God’s gracious voice of pardon and promise. If a man hears God, he will not be drawn to worship at any idol’s shrine.
Further, in the third clause, Ephraim is joyfully conscious of the change that has passed on him, in accordance with the great promises just spoken, and with grateful astonishment that such verdure should have burst out from the dry and rotten stump of his own sinful nature, exclaims, ‘I am like a green fir-tree.’ That is another reason why he will have no more to do with idols. They could never have made his sapless nature break into leafage. But what of the fourth clause-’From Me is thy fruit found’? Can we understand that to mean that Ephraim still speaks, keeping up the image of the previous clause, and declaring that all the new fruitfulness which he finds in himself he recognises to be God’s, both in the sense that, in reality, it is produced by Him, and that it belongs to Him? He comes seeking fruit, and He finds it. All our good is His, and we shall be happy, productive, and wise, in proportion as we offer all our works to Him, and feel that, after all, they are not ours, but the works of that Spirit which dwells in penitent and believing hearts. Some have thought that this last clause must be taken as spoken by God; but, even if so taken, it conveys substantially the same thought as to the divine origin of man’s fruitfulness.
The last verse is rather a general reflection summing up the whole than an integral part of this wonderful representation of penitence, pardon, and fruitfulness. It declares the great truth that the knowledge of the pardoning mercy of God, and of the ways by which He weans men from sin and makes them fruitful of good, makes us truly wise. That knowledge is more than intellectual apprehension; it is experience. Providence has its mysteries, but they who keep near to God, and are ‘just’ because they do, will find the opportunity of free, unfettered activity in God’s ways, and transgressors will stumble therein. Therefore wisdom and safety lie in penitence and confession, which will ever be met by gracious pardon and showers of blessing that will cause our hearts, which sin has made desert, to rejoice and blossom like the rose.
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 Israel will Surely Repent and be Forgiven
Israel will Surely Repent and be Forgiven
Hosea makes a touching final appeal for repentance. He assures Israel of God's mercy, and closes with a description of the blessings that will follow the renewal of His favour.
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2. Take.. words] go to Him, prepared to confess your sins. Receive us graciously] RV 'accept that which is good,' i.e. what is good in us, in contrast to the iniquity which God is asked to take away. Render] i.e. offer. The calves.. lips] better, 'our lips as bullocks'—that sacrifice of penitence which is outwardly expressed not in the sacrifice of animals, but in confession of sin: cp. Psa_51:17.
3. Israel would no longer depend upon the help either of foreign powers or of the idols, but trust in Jehovah, the helper of the fatherless.
5. Dew] a frequent metaphor to express spiritual blessing: cp. Deu_32:2. The paucity of rain made the land dependent on frequent and heavy dews: cp. 1Ki_17:1. Grow] RV 'blossom.'
6. Olive] the emblem of fatness and fertility.
8. This v. passes into a sort of dialogue between Ephraim and God. Thus:
Ephraim. What have I to do any more with idols? i.e. I will in future have nothing more to do with them.
Jehovah. (RV) 'I have answered, and will regard him,' i.e. I have heard his prayer, and will answer it.
Ephraim. I am like a green fir tree] I am strong and prosperous.
Jehovah. From me is thy fruit found, i.e. do not in prosperity once more forget that it comes from Me: cp. Joh_15:4.
9. A general reflection on the teaching of the book, which cannot be understood except by the wise and prudent, but in the end will be found to be true wisdom: cp. Psa_107:43. This epilogue may have been added at a later date, to point the moral of the whole book.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 The Return and the Glorious Redemption
CHAPTER 14
The Return and the Glorious Redemption
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1. The exhortation to return (Hos 14:1-3)
2. The glorious redemption (Hos 14:4-9)
Hos 14:1-3. This chapter is a wonderful finale to the messages of Hosea. What tender entreaties! What gracious assurance! What glorious promises of a future redemption! it is Jehovah beseeching His people, those who had forsaken Him, outraged His character of holiness and who had despised Him. First is the call to return. God’s hands are tied as long as His people stay away from Him and do not return to Him in true repentance. No true salvation and deliverance for His people is possible without a true heart return unto Him. It is this for which He looks and waits.
Then the Lord Himself puts His word and a prayer into their mouth. He loves to provide all. “Take with you words and turn to Jehovah and say unto Him, Forgive all iniquity, and receive us graciously, so will we render the calves of our lips.” Could their poor, darkened and mistrusting hearts ever even have imagined to ask thus of Him? Their consciences were defiled; the burden of guilt was upon them. But Jehovah does not mention their sins and their guilt, but tells them just to pray for forgiveness and for a gracious reception. And He who tells His wayward people to pray, to turn to Him, to pray for forgiveness, He who assures them that He hears, assures them of a gracious receiving, will never fail. How full of comfort these sentences are to all His people at all times! We can imagine that in Hosea’s day there were individual Israelites who took these words to heart. After them generations of Jews read them and turned individually to the Lord, found forgiveness and became the objects of His grace. And we too, as His people, when we have gone back in our spiritual life, can find our comfort here, and appropriate all this in faith as we act upon His Word. In the future the remnant of Israel will take these gracious exhortations to heart, and before the glorious redemption is given to them return to the Lord with this prayer.
“So will we render the calves of our lips.” Literally rendered it is “we will pay as young oxen our lips,” i.e., present the prayers of our lips as a thank offering; we will be worshippers. Such is the result of a real return unto the Lord with sins forgiven and restored to His fellowship. The days of singing are coming for Israel in that day when they return unto Him and He appears in His glory to be enthroned as King. It will usher in the singing times for all the world, including groaning creation, then delivered. Then follows the evidence of their genuine repentance. It is expressed in words suited to the condition of Ephraim in Hosea’s day. They repudiate Assyria; they acknowledge that no salvation is there, but only in Jehovah. No longer will they trust in their own strength and in the strength of their horses; no longer will they turn to idols and call them “Our God,” but they will acknowledge Him in whom the fatherless findeth mercy. Israel, God’s firstborn son, had been the prodigal, was fatherless, though the Father’s love never gave them up. But now the prodigal returns and knows there is One in whom the fatherless findeth abundant mercy. All this true repentance will be manifested at the close of this age, when the remnant of Israel turns to the Lord.
Hos 14:4-9. His gracious answer to such repentance follows. Three times Jehovah speaks “I will.” This is the word of sovereign grace. (See annotations on Ezekiel.) The three “I wills” are: (1) I will heal their backslidings; (2) I will love them freely; (3) I will be a dew unto Israel. They are arranged in a most blessed order. Mercy, love and gracious refreshment resulting in fruitfulness and beauty, such is the order. The past is wiped out, the present is love and the future is glory. Like the lily, like Lebanon and like the olive-tree, Israel is to be. The lily denotes beauty; they will be clad in the beauty of holiness. Lebanon stands for strength and stability; they will become the nation of power which can never be moved. Then they shall be once more the olive tree; the broken off branches will be put back Rom 11:16, etc.). The blessings of the restored Israel in the millennium are given in the seventh verse.
Beautiful is Hos 14:8. “Ephraim (shall say), ‘What have I to do any more with idols? I hear and I look upon Him; I am like a green fir tree. From Me is thy fruit found.’“ Ephraim, the cake half turned, Ephraim, of whom it was said, he is joined to idols, leave him alone, now repudiates the idols. And why? I hear and I look upon Him! The vision of the Lord turned the stubborn heart. It is so still; the great power is to hear Him, to look upon Him. In that day Israel will look on Him whom they pierced, the great turning point in their future history. Then the nation will yield the fruit through their fellowship with Him. Blessed ending of this prophecy. “For the ways of Jehovah are right, and the just shall walk in them; but the transgressors shall fall therein.”
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v1 A Final Exhortation to Return, with a Promise of…
A Final Exhortation to Return, with a Promise of Redemption.
After having shown the apostate Israelites in various ways in what their guilt consisted, the Lord here once more appeals to them to return to Him in true repentance, since He desires to show them His mercy in full measure.
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v. 1. O Israel, return unto the Lord, thy God, to the God of the Messianic covenant; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity, but there is still a possibility of returning.
v. 2. Take with you words, expressed in prayers of forgiveness, and turn to the Lord; say unto Him, in a full and frank confession of sins, Take away all iniquity, forgiving the transgression with its guilt, and receive us graciously, receiving the one good thing which they have to offer; so will we render the calves of our lips, literally, "and we will render as bullocks our lips," namely, the confession of guilt and the promise to amend their ways.
v. 3. Asshur, the world-power upon which they had relied till then, shall not save us; we will not ride upon horses, depending upon their cavalry, their army; neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, the idols which they had molded and fashioned. Ye are our gods, this being an open confession of the vanity of their idolatrous practices; for in Thee, in the true God alone, the fatherless findeth mercy. Cf Exo 22:22; Deu 10:18. In the entire prayer of repentance the trust in the mercy of the Lord is evident. The Lord’s answer, therefore, is a wonderful promise of mercy.
v. 4. I will heal their backsliding, all the calamities brought upon them by their unfaithfulness to the Lord; I will love them freely, with the fullness of His abundant love and mercy; for Mine anger is turned away from him, having readily been withdrawn at the evidence of real sorrow which their prayer showed.
v. 5. I will be as the dew unto Israel, refreshing and strengthening; he shall grow as the lily, known for its fruitfulness, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon, the mountains having their foundations in the innermost recesses of the earth.
v. 6. His branches shall spread, as he nourishes and develops with vigorous life, and his beauty shall be as the olive-tree, with its evergreen leaves and rich-gleaming fruit, and his smell as Lebanon, with its cedars and aromatic shrubs. So the attributes of firmness, of fruitfulness, of beauty and glory, and of amiability and loveliness are ascribed to the repentant people once more received into the grace of God.
v. 7. They that dwell under His shadow, the members of Israel as they have turned to the Lord in repentance, shall return, they shall revive as the corn, rather, shall produce grain once more, be a soil fruitful in good works, and grow as the vine, the scent thereof shall be as the vine of Lebanon, which was known of old for its excellent flavor.
v. 8. Ephraim shall say, in addressing the Lord, What have I to do any more with idols? Or the sentence may be considered as an appeal to Ephraim to renounce all idolatry. I have heard him and observed him, Jehovah regarding His people with favor; I am like a green fir-tree, a cypress, symbol of everlasting life; from Me is thy fruit found, it is the Lord’s strength which nourishes the bodily and spiritual strength of His people.
v. 9. Who is wise, and he shall understand these things? namely, all that the prophet has written by way of warning, rebuke, admonition, and correction; prudent, and he shall know them? For the ways of the Lord, particularly in the manner in which He deals with His children on earth, are right, and the just shall walk in them, finding their delight in doing the Lord’s will; but the transgressors shall fall therein. Cf Deu 32:4. The preaching of truth is to some a savor of life unto life, to others a savor of death unto death. Cf Deu 30:19-20; 1Co 1:18.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 3 General Information:
General Information:
Hosea the prophet is speaking.
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for you have fallen because of your iniquity
Sinning is spoken of here as if it were falling. (See: Metaphor)
Take with you words
This probably means words of confession and praise. AT: "Confess your sins" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
the fruit of our lips
What a person says is called the fruit of his lips. Modern versions have different translations of this difficult passage. AT: "our words and songs of praise" (See: Metonymy)
translationWords
Israel
Yahweh
God
iniquity
word
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1–3 14:1-9 Destruction was not God’s last word to his…
14:1-9 Destruction was not God’s last word to his covenant people. Although judgment must come, God’s healing, restoring grace is always more powerful than human sin.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.