“Ephraim, what shall I do to you? Judah, what shall I do to you? For your love is like a morning cloud, and like the dew that disappears early.
Parallel Translations
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“Ephraim, what shall I do to you? Judah, what shall I do to you? For your love is like a morning cloud, and like the dew that disappears early.
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O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? O Judah, what shall I do unto thee? for your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away.
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O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? O Judah, what shall I do unto thee? for your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the dew that early passeth away.
Cross-references (18)
Passages linked to Hosea 6:4 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Psalms 78:34-37 When he killed them, then they inquired after him. They returned and sought God earnestly. They remembered that God was their rock, the Most High God, their redeemer. But they flattered him with their mouth, and lied to him with their tongue. For their heart was not right with him, neither were they faithful in his covenant.
- Hosea 11:8 “How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, Israel? How can I make you like Admah? How can I make you like Zeboiim? My heart is turned within me, my compassion is aroused.
- Hosea 13:3 Therefore they will be like the morning mist, and like the dew that passes away early, like the chaff that is driven with the whirlwind out of the threshing floor, and like the smoke out of the chimney.
- Psalms 106:12-13 Then they believed his words. They sang his praise. They soon forgot his works. They didn’t wait for his counsel,
- Matthew 13:21 yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while. When oppression or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles.
- Luke 13:7-9 He said to the vine dresser, ‘Behold, these three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and found none. Cut it down. Why does it waste the soil?’ He answered, ‘Lord, leave it alone this year also, until I dig around it and fertilize it. If it bears fruit, fine; but if not, after that, you can cut it down.’ ”
- 2 Peter 2:20-22 For if, after they have escaped the defilement of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in it and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. For it would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than after knowing it, to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them. But it has happened to them according to the true proverb, “The dog turns to his own vomit again,” and “the sow that has washed to wallowing in the mire.”
- Luke 19:41-42 When he came near, he saw the city and wept over it, saying, “If you, even you, had known today the things which belong to your peace! But now, they are hidden from your eyes.
- Judges 2:18-19 When Yahweh raised up judges for them, then Yahweh was with the judge, and saved them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge; for it grieved Yahweh because of their groaning by reason of those who oppressed them and troubled them. But when the judge was dead, they turned back, and dealt more corruptly than their fathers in following other gods to serve them and to bow down to them. They didn’t cease what they were doing, or give up their stubborn ways.
- Isaiah 5:3-4 “Now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, please judge between me and my vineyard. What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? Why, when I looked for it to yield grapes, did it yield wild grapes?
- Jeremiah 3:10 Yet for all this her treacherous sister, Judah, has not returned to me with her whole heart, but only in pretense,” says Yahweh.
- Jeremiah 3:19 “But I said, ‘How I desire to put you among the children, and give you a pleasant land, a goodly heritage of the armies of the nations!’ and I said, ‘You shall call me “My Father”, and shall not turn away from following me.’
- Jeremiah 5:7 “How can I pardon you? Your children have forsaken me, and sworn by what are no gods. When I had fed them to the full, they committed adultery, and assembled themselves in troops at the prostitutes’ houses.
- Jeremiah 5:9 Shouldn’t I punish them for these things?” says Yahweh. “Shouldn’t my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?
- Jeremiah 5:23 “But this people has a revolting and a rebellious heart. They have revolted and gone.
- Jeremiah 9:7 Therefore Yahweh of Armies says, “Behold, I will melt them and test them; for how should I deal with the daughter of my people?
- Jeremiah 34:15 You had now turned, and had done that which is right in my eyes, in every man proclaiming liberty to his neighbor. You had made a covenant before me in the house which is called by my name;
- Hosea 7:1 When I would heal Israel, then the iniquity of Ephraim is uncovered, also the wickedness of Samaria; for they commit falsehood, and the thief enters in, and the gang of robbers ravages outside.
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain Some so expound this passage as that God would…
Some so expound this passage as that God would not once irrigate his people, but would continue this favor; as though he said, “He is deceived, who thinks that the redemption, which I bid you to hope from me, will be momentary, for I will, by a continued progress, lead my people to a full fruition of salvation.” But this sense is altogether foreign. The Prophet then, no doubt, introduces God here as speaking thus, “What shall I do to you? because ye cannot receive my favor, so great is your depravity.” The context seems indeed to be in this way broken off; but we must remember this canon, that whenever the Prophets make known the grace of God, they at the same time add an exception, lest hypocrites falsely apply to themselves what is offered to the faithful alone. The Prophets, we know, never threatened ruin to the people, but that they added some promise, lest the faithful should despair, which must have been the case, except some mitigation had been made known to them. Hence the Prophets do this in common, — they moderate their threatening and severity by adding a hope of God’s favor. But at the same time, as hypocrites ever draw to themselves what belongs only to the faithful, and thus heedlessly deride God, the Prophets add another exception, by which they signify, that God’s promise of being gracious and merciful to his people is not to be deemed universal, and as appertaining to all indiscriminately.
I will more fully repeat this again: The Prophets had to do with the whole people; they had to do with the few faithful, for there was a small number of godly people among the Israelites as well as among the Jews. When therefore the Prophets reproved the people, they addressed the whole body: but at the same time, as there was some remnant seed, they mingled, as I have said, consolations, and mingled them, that the elect of God might ever recumb on his mercy, and thus patiently submit to his rod, and continue in his fear, knowing that there is in him a sure salvation. Hence the promises which we see inserted by the Prophets among threats and chidings, ought not to be referred in common to all, or indiscriminately to the people, but only, as we have said, to the faithful, who were then but few in number. This then is the reason why the prophets shook off self-complacencies from the wicked despisers of God, when they added, “Ye ought not to hope any salvation from the promise I set forth to God’s children; for God throws not to dogs the bread which he has destined for his children alone.” In the same strain we find another Prophet speaking,
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‘To what end is the day of the Lord to you? It is a day of darkness, and not of light, a day of death, and not of life,’ (Amos 5:18.)
For as often as they heard of the covenant which God made with Abraham, that it would not be void, they thus vaunted, “We are now indeed severely treated, but in a little while God will rescue us from our evils; for he is our Father, he has not in vain adopted us, he has not in vain redeemed and chosen our race, we are his peculiar possession and heritage.” Thus then the presumptuous flatter themselves; and this indeed they seem to have in common with the faithful; for the faithful also, though in the deepest abyss of death, yet behold the light of life; for by faith, as we have said, they penetrate beyond this world. But at the same time they approach God in real penitence, while the ungodly remain in their perverseness, and vainly flatter themselves, thinking that whatever God promises belongs to them.
Let us now then return to our Prophet. He had said, “In their tribulation they will seek me:” he had afterwards, in the words used by the people, explained how the faithful would turn themselves to God, and what true repentance would bring with it. It now follows, What shall I do to thee, Ephraim? what shall I do to thee, Judah? that is, “What shall I do to all of you?” The people was now divided into two kingdoms: the kingdom of Judah had its own name; the ten tribes had, as it has been said, the common name of Israel. Then after the Prophet gave hope of pardon to the children of God, he turns himself to the whole body of the people, which was corrupt, and says, “What shall I do now to you, both Jews and Israelites?” Now God, by these words, intimates that he had tried all remedies, and found them useless: “What more then,” he says, “shall I do to you? Ye are wholly incurable, ye are inexcusable, and altogether past hope; for no means have been omitted by me, by which I could promote your salvation; but I have lost all my labour; as I have effected nothing by punishments and chastisements, as my favor also has had no account among you, what now remains, but that I must wholly cast you away?”
We now then see how varied is the mode of speaking adopted by the Prophets; for they had to do, not with one class of men, but with the children of God, and also with the wicked, who continued obstinately in their vices. Hence then it was, that they changed their language, and so necessarily. Alike is the complaint we read in Isaiah chapter 1, except that there mention is only made of punishments, ‘Why should I strike you more? for I have hitherto effected nothing: from the sole of the foot to the top of the head there is no soundness; and yet ye remain like yourselves.’ In chapter 5 he speaks of God’s favors, ‘What could have been done more to my vineyard than what I have done?’ In these two places the Prophet shows that the people were so lost, that they could not be brought into a sane mind; for God had in various ways tried to heal them, and their diseases remained incurable.
Let us now return to the words of Hosea, What shall I do to thee, Ephraim? What shall I do to thee Judah? “I indeed offer pardon to all, but ye still continue obstinately in your sins; nay, my favor is by you scorned: I do not therefore now contend with you; but declare to you that the door of salvation is closed.” Why? “Because I have hitherto in various ways tried in vain to heal you.”
He afterwards says that their goodness was like the morning dew, Your goodness, he says, is as the dew of the morning.” Some take חסד, chesad, for the kindness which God had exercised towards both the Israelites and the Jews. Then it is, “Your kindness,” that is, the mercy which I have hitherto exhibited to you, is as the morning dew, as the cloud which passes away early in the morning, that is, “Ye immediately dry up my favor;” and this seems not unsuitable, for we see that the unbelieving by their wickedness absorb the mercy of God, so that it produces no good, as when rain flows over a rock or a stone, while the stone within, on account of its hardness, remains dry. As then the moisture of rain does not penetrate into stones, so also the grace of God is spent in vain and without advantage on the unbelieving.
But the Prophet speaks rather of their goodness, that they made a show of feigned excellency, which vanished like the morning dew; for as soon as the sun rises, it draws the dew upwards, so that it appears no more; the clouds also pass away. The Prophet says that the Jews and the Israelites were like the morning clouds and the dew, because there was in them no solid or inward goodness, but it was only of an evanescent kind; they had, as they say, only the appearance of goodness.
We now then perceive the meaning of the Prophet, that God here complains that he had to do with hypocrites. Faith, we know, is regarded by him; there is nothing that pleases God more than sincerity of heart. We know further, that doctrine is spread in vain, except it be received in a serious manner. Then, as hypocrites transform themselves in various ways, and make a display of some guises of goodness, while they have nothing solid in them, God complains that he loses all his labour: and he says at length that he will no longer spend labour in vain on hypocritical men, who have nothing but falsehood and dissimulation; and this is what he means, when he intimates that he should do nothing more to the Israelites and the Jews.
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 You seem to have a certain holiness and repentance,…
You seem to have a certain holiness and repentance, but it is upon the sudden, and as a morning cloud.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Hos 6:4 O Ephraim, what shall I do unto…
Hos 6:4 O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? O Judah, what shall I do unto thee? for your goodness [is] as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away.
Ver. 4. O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee, &c.] See how soon the prophet changeth his note. Hitherto he had set forth their repentance in sense of mercy; now all of a sudden he upbraideth and threateneth them for their incorrigibleness and inconstancy. Ministers must turn themselves, as it were, into all shapes and fashions, both of speech and spirit, to win people to God. Aaron’s bells must be wisely rung, saith one. Sometimes the treble of mercy sounds well, at other times the tenor of judgment, or counter tenor of reproof, sounds better; and it often happens that the means of exhortation soundeth best of all. It is his wisdom to observe circumstances, and know how to curse as well as bless, chide as well as comfort, and speak war to a rebel as well as peace to a friend. And herein indeed lieth the wisdom and faithfulness of a teacher. Then, and only then, shall he prove himself sincere and impartial, when he holds this course. "What shall I do unto thee?" It is as if God should say, I have done my utmost, as Isa 5:5 Mic 5:3, and now am I at a stand, and can scarce tell what to do more. See the like expostulatory complaints, Jer 2:30-31 Hos 5:3 Amo 4:6 Isa 26:10 Mat 11:16-18; Mat 23:37. I would, but thou wouldst not. As the loving hen is always caring for her chickens, and calling them about her, that she may gather and guard them from the mischief of all vermin; but they will needs be straggling, and so perish; so if God’s people will not hearken to his voice, if Israel will none of him, what can he do less than give them up to their own hearts’ lusts, Psa 81:12, yea, give them up to the devil, to be further hardened to their just destruction, saying, that which will die, let it die? All that God can do is, as here, to mourn for their obstinacy and fool-hardiness in rejecting his grace, as he wept over Jerusalem, Luk 19:42. We should also do the like, crying out with Isaiah, "My leanness, my leanness!" and with Jeremiah, "My bowels, my bowels!" and with Paul, I have "great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart," for my perverse countrymen, Isa 24:16 Jer 4:19 Rom 9:2. Peter calleth them an untoward generation, Act 2:40; such crooked pieces that there was no working upon them. A cunning carver can cut the similitude of any creature, yet not on a crooked or rotten stick. Where lieth the fault? surely in the crookedness of the stick, and not in the carver’s cunning: so is it here. When men wrestle with God, as Deu 32:5, shift him off, as the apostle’s word, παραιτησησθε, signifieth, Heb 12:25, take up the bucklers against the sword of his Spirit, lest it should prick them at heart, as Act 2:37, and let out the life blood of their lusts, that they might live; what can the Lord do in this case more than pity their unhappiness, and punish them for their stubborness, as the judge pitieth a malefactor, as he is a man, but yet condemneth him as a thief or murderer? Tell me not here, that God could have done more for Ephraim and Judah than he did; and they might have said in answer to God’s question here, as that leper in the gospel did, Why? "Lord, if thou wilt thou canst make me clean," Mat 8:2. Hence it is God by his absolute power can make iron swim, rocks stream forth water, stones to yield children to Abraham; he can do whatsoever he pleaseth; save without means, &c. But it is his actual power that men must look to. And so he (having tied the end and means together) cannot (say divines), because he will not, bring men to the end, without their using those means which tend unto the end; for that is the ordinary course which he hath decreed to use, and which he will not alter, but upon special occasion, as our Saviour noteth in the cure of Naaman, and in the feeding of the widow of Sarepta, Luk 4:26-27.
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For your goodness is as the morning cloud, &c.] This people hearing God say, What shall I do unto you? might possibly reply, Why? what should you do but rain down righteousness upon us, and load us with loving-kindness? for we are good all over, we have returned and done right in thy sight, as it is said of those hypocrites, Jer 34:15-16, and as Peter saith of some apostates in his time, that they were clean escaped from them who live in error; and (for matter of practice) they had also escaped the pollutions of the world; knew the way of righteousness, and seemed very forward in it; were as the fore-horses in a team, ringleaders of good exercises, &c.; who yet afterwards fell off to the world, turned from the holy commandments, and returned with the dog to their vomit, and with the washed sow to her wallowing again in the mire. And this is that which the Lord here upbraideth this people with (and so stops their mouths), viz., that their goodness or mercifulness, their piety toward God and charity toward men, was nothing else but a morning cloud, Jdg 1:12, a waterless cloud, as Jude hath it, a mere flaunt, or flash, an outside only, an empty sound, a vain pretence. It was also as the morning dew, which is soon dried up by the sunbeams. In a word, they were both false and fickle, unsteady and unstable, constant only in their inconstancy. Hence this pathetic complaint of them; God knew not where to have them, and therefore not what to do with them. These were never right with God, because not stedfast in his covenant, Psa 78:36-37; they are unstable as water, therefore they shall not excel, Gen 49:4; they never were a willing people in the day of Christ’s power, Psa 110:3, his power was never put forth upon them, to subdue their wills to God’s will. They never yet attained to that spirit of power, of love, and of a sound mind, 2Ti 1:7. Inconstancy comes from weakness. "The strength of Israel repenteth not," 1Sa 15:29.
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 The Lord now enters a debate with both Israel…
The Lord now enters a debate with both Israel (here called
Ephraim) and the two tribes, with all that were his, people anciently; much after the manner of men, who having to do with froward and ungovernable children, or servants, whom they pity, and would not cast off, after much kindness and patience showed to them, and abused by them, at last seem at a stand what more to do, or appeal to by-standers whether more might be done, or demand of the untractable ones what they can desire more to be done. So Isa 5:3-6; Mic 6:3,5. What is it I may do becoming my holy, just, and wise procedures, with my reasonable creatures? What should I do more to save you from ruin, and salve my own honour, truth, add justice? Would you of the ten tribes, and you of the two tribes, have me cease to be God, and resign to your idols? or repeal my own laws, and subscribe to your idols’ rites? Or would you have Satan the wicked one, who hath seduced your kings, prophets, priests, and people, whom you worship in your idols, would you that he should still retain your love and service, and I maintain you in it? I would do, as appears by what I have done, any thing that may be done to reduce, reclaim, and reform you, who are as impudent adulteresses, that will not be sincere and faithful to their reconciled husband.
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Your goodness, or your kindness, your love to me, my law, worship, and honour, your promises of love and loyalty,
is as a morning cloud, and as the early dew; vanisheth without effect, it is deceitful; you are hypocrites, nothing but short and empty signs of goodness, piety, and amendment. Their hypocrisy and unconstancy, elegantly expressed in this double allusion, renders them uncapable of further gentleness.
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 Two things, two evil things, both Judah and Ephraim…
Two things, two evil things, both Judah and Ephraim are here charged with, and justly accused of: -
I. That they were not firm to their own convictions, but were unsteady, unstable as water, Hos 6:4, Hos 6:5. O Ephraim! what shall I do unto thee? O Judah! what shall I do unto thee? This is a strange expression. Can Infinite Wisdom be at a loss what to do? Can it be nonplussed, or put upon taking new measures? By no means; but God speaks after the manner of men, to show how absurd and unreasonable they were, and how just his proceedings against them were. Let them not complain of him as harsh and severe in tearing them, and smiting them, as he has done; for what else should he do? What other course could he take with them? God had tried various methods with them (What could have been done more to his vineyard than he had done? Isa 5:4), and very loth he was to let things go to extremity; he reasons with himself (as Hos 11:9), How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? God would have done them good, but they were not qualified for it: "What shall I do unto thee? What else can I do but cast thee off, when I cannot in honour save thee?" Note, God never destroys sinners till he sees there is no other way with them. See here, 1. What their conduct was towards God: Their goodness, or kindness, was as the morning cloud. Some understand it of their kindness to themselves and their own souls, in their repentance; it is indeed mercy to ourselves to repent of our sins, but they soon retracted that kindness to themselves, undid it again, and wronged their own souls as much as ever. But it is rather to be taken for their piety and religion; what good appeared in them sometimes, it soon vanished and disappeared again, as the morning cloud and the early dew. Such was the goodness of Israel in Jehu's time, and of Judah in Hezekiah's and Josiah's time; it was soon gone. In time of drought the morning-cloud promises rain, and the early dew is some present refreshment to the earth; but the cloud is dispersed (and hypocrites are compared to clouds without water, Jde 1:12) and the dew does not soak into the ground, but is drawn back again into the air, and the earth is parched still. What shall he do with them? Shall he accept their goodness? No, for it passes away; and factum non dicitur quod non perseverat - that which does not continue can scarcely be said to be done. Note, That goodness will never be either pleasing to God or profitable to ourselves which is as the morning cloud and the early dew. When men promise fair and do not perform, when they begin well in religion and do not hold on, when they leave their first love and their first works, or, though they do not quite cast off religion, are yet unsteady, uneven, and inconstant in it, then is their goodness as the morning cloud and the early dew. 2. What course God had taken with them (Hos 6:5): "Therefore, because they were so rough and ill-shapen, I have hewn them by the prophets, as timber or stone is hewn for use; I have slain them by the words of my mouth." What the prophets did was done by the word of God in their mouths, which never returned void. By it they thought themselves slain, were ready to say that the prophets killed them, or cut them to the heart when they dealt faithfully with them. (1.) The prophets hewed them by convictions of sin, endeavouring to cut off their transgressions from them. They were uneven in religion (Hos 6:4), therefore God hewed them. The hearts of sinners are not only as stone, but as rough stone, which requires a great deal of pains to bring it into shape, or as knotty timber, that is not squared without a great deal of difficulty; ministers' work is to hew them, and God by the minister hews them, for with the froward will he show himself froward. And there are those whom ministers must rebuke sharply; every word should cut, and though the chips fly in the face of the workman, though the reproved fly in the face of the reprover and reckon him an enemy because he tells the truth, yet he goes on with his work. (2.) They slew them by the denunciations of wrath, foretelling that they should be slain, as Ezekiel is said to destroy the city when he prophesied of the destruction of it, Eze 43:3. And God accomplished that which was foretold: "I have slain them by my judgments, according to the words of my mouth." Note, The word of God will be the death either of the sin or of the sinner, a savour either of life unto life or of death unto death. Some read it, "I have hewn the prophets, and slain them by the words of my mouth, that is, I have employed them in laborious service for the people's good, which has wasted their strength; they have spent themselves, and hews away all their spirits, in their work, and in hazardous service, which has cost many of them their lives." Note, Ministers are the tools which God makes use of in working upon people; and, though with many they labour in vain, yet God will reckon for the wearing out of his tools. (3.) God was hereby justified in the severest proceedings against them afterwards. His prophets had taken a great deal of pains with them, had admonished them of their sin and warned them of their danger, but the means used had not the desired effect; some good impressions perhaps were made for the present, but they wore off, and passed away as the morning cloud, and now they cannot charge God with severity if he bring upon them the miseries threatened. The prophet turns to him and acknowledges, Thy judgments are as the light that goes forth, evidently just and righteous. Note, Though sinners be not reclaimed by the pains that ministers take with them, yet thereby God will be justified when he speaks and clear when he judges. See Mat 11:17-19.
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II. That they were not faithful to God's covenant with them, Hos 6:6, Hos 6:7. Here observe,
1. What the covenant was that God made with them, and upon what terms they should obtain his favour and be accepted of him (Hos 6:6): I desired mercy and not sacrifice (that is, rather than sacrifice), and insisted upon the knowledge of God more than upon burnt-offerings. Mercy here is the same word which in Hos 6:4 is rendered goodness - chesed - piety, sanctity; it is put for all practical religion; it is the same with charity in the New Testament, the reigning love of God and our neighbour, and this accompanied with and flowing from the knowledge of God, as he has revealed himself in his word, a firm belief that he is, and is the rewarder of those that diligently seek him, a good affection to divine things guided by a good judgment, which cannot but produce a very good conversation; this is that which God by his covenant requires, and not sacrifice and offering. This is fully explained, Jer 7:22, Jer 7:23. I spoke not to your fathers concerning burnt-offerings (that was the smallest of the matters I spoke to them of, and on which the least stress was laid), but this I said, Obey my voice, Mic 6:6-8. To love God and our neighbour is better than all burnt offering and sacrifice, Mar 12:33; Psa 51:16, Psa 51:17. Not but that sacrifice and offering were required, and to be paid, and had their use, and, when they were accompanied with mercy and the knowledge of God, were acceptable to him, but, without them, God regarded them not, he despised them, Isa 1:10, Isa 1:11. Perhaps this is mentioned here to show a difference between the God whom they deserted and the gods whom they went over to. The true God aimed at nothing but that they should be good men, and live good lives for their own good, and the ceremony of honouring him with sacrifices was one of the smallest matters of his law; whereas the false gods required that only; let their priests and altars be regaled with sacrifices and offerings, and the people might live as they listed. What fools were those then that left a God who aimed at giving his worshippers a new nature, for gods who aimed at nothing but making themselves a new name! It is mentioned likewise to show that God's controversy with them was not for the omission of sacrifices (I will not reprove thee for them, Psa 50:8), but because there was no justice, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God, among them (Hos 4:1), and to teach us all that the power of godliness is the main thing God looks at and requires, and without it the form of godliness is of no avail. Serious piety in the heart and life is the one thing needful, and, separate from that, the performances of devotion, though ever so plausible, ever so costly, are of no account. Our Saviour quotes this to show that moral duties are to be preferred before rituals whenever they come in competition, and to justify himself in eating with publicans and sinners, because it was in mercy to the souls of men, and in healing on the sabbath day, because it was in mercy to the bodies of men, to which the ceremony of singularity in eating and the sabbath-rest must give way, Mat 9:13; Mat 12:7.
2. How little they had regarded this covenant, though it was so well ordered in all things, though they, and not God, would be the gainers by it. See here what came of it.
(1.) In general, they broke with God, and proved unfaithful; there were good things committed to them to keep, the jewels of mercy and piety, and the knowledge of God, in the cabinet of sacrifice and burnt-offering, but they betrayed their trust, kept the cabinet, but pawned the jewels for the gratification of a base lust, and this is that for which God has justly a quarrel with them (Hos 6:7): They, like men, have transgressed the covenant, that covenant which God made with them; they have broken the conditions of it, and so forfeited the benefit of it. By casting off mercy and the knowledge of God, and other instances of disobedience, [1.] They had contracted the guilt of perjury and covenant-breaking; they were like men that transgress a covenant by which they had solemnly bound themselves, which is a thing that all the world cries out shame on; men that have done so deserve not again to be valued, or trusted, or dealt with. "There, in that thing, they have dealt treacherously against me; they have been perfidious, base, and false children, in whom is no faith, though I depended upon their being children that would not lie." [2.] In this they had but acted like themselves, like men, who are generally false and fickle, and in whose nature (their corrupt nature) it is to deal treacherously; all men are liars, and they are like the rest of that degenerate race, all gone aside, Psa 14:2, Psa 14:3. They have transgressed the covenant like men (like the Gentiles that transgressed the covenant of nature), like mean men (the word here used is sometimes put for men of low degree); they have dealt deceitfully, like base men that have no sense of honour. [3.] Herein they trod in the steps of our first parents: They, like Adam, have transgressed the covenant (so it might very well be read); as he transgressed the covenant of innocency, so they transgressed the covenant of grace, so treacherously, so foolishly; there in paradise he violated his engagements to God, and there in Canaan, another paradise, they violated their engagements. And by their treacherous dealing they, like Adam, have ruined themselves and theirs. Note, Sin is so much the worse the more there is in it of the similitude of Adam's transgression, Rom 5:14. [4.] Low thoughts of God and of his authority and favour were at the bottom of all this; for so some read it: They have transgressed the covenant, as of a man, as if it had been but the covenant of a man, that stood upon even ground with them, as if the commands of the covenant were but like those of a man like themselves, and the kindness conveyed by it no more valuable than that of a man. There is something sacred and binding in a man's covenant (as the apostle shows, Gal 3:15), but much more in the covenant of God, which yet they made small account of; and there in that covenant they dealt treacherously, promised fair, but performed nothing. Dealing treacherously with God is here called dealing treacherously against him, for it is both an affront and an opposition. Deserters are traitors, and will be so treated; the revolting heart is a rebellious heart.
(2.) Some particular instances of their treachery are here given: There they dealt treacherously, that is, in the places hereafter named [1.] Look on the other side Jordan, to the country which lay most exposed to the insults of the neighbouring nations, and where therefore the people were concerned to keep themselves under the divine protection, and yet there you will find the most daring provocations of the divine Majesty, Hos 6:8. Gilead, which lay in the lot of Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh, was a city of the workers of iniquity. Wickedness was the trade that was driven there; the country was called Gilead, but it was all called a city, because they were all as it were incorporated in one society of rebels against God. Or (as most think) Ramoth Gilead is the city here meant, one of the three cities of refuge on the other side Jordan, and a Levites' city; the inhabitants of it, though of the sacred tribe, were workers of iniquity, contrived it, and practised it. Note, It is bad indeed when a Levites' city is a city of those that work iniquity, when those that are to preach good doctrine live bad lives. Particularly it is polluted with blood, as if that were a sin which the wicked Levites were in a special manner guilty of. In popish countries the clergy are observed to be the most bloody persecutors. Or, as it was a city of refuge, by abusing the power it had to judge of murders it became polluted with blood. They would, for a bribe, protect those that were guilty of wilful murder, whom they ought to have put to death, and would deliver those to the avenger of blood who were guilty but of chance-medley, if they were poor and had nothing to give them; and both these ways they were polluted with blood. Note, Blood defiles the land where it is shed, and where no inquisition is made or no vengeance taken for it. See how the best institutions, that are ever so well designed to keep the balance even between justice and mercy, are capable of being abused and perverted to the manifest prejudice and violation of both. [2.] Look among those whose business it was to minister in holy things, and they were as bad as the worst and as vile as the vilest (Hos 6:9): The company of priests are so, not here and there one that is the scandal of his order, but the whole order and body of them, the priests go all one way by consent, with one shoulder (as the word is), one and all; and they make one another worse, more daring, and fierce, and impudent, in sin, more crafty and more cruel. A company of priests will say and do that in conspiracy which none of them would dare to say or do singly. The companies of priests were as troops of robbers, as banditti, or gangs of highwaymen, that cut men's throats to get their money. First, They were cruel and blood-thirsty. They murder those that they have a pique against, or that stand in their way; nothing less will satisfy them. Secondly, They were cunning. They laid wait for men, that they might have a fair opportunity to compass their mischievous malicious designs; thus the company of priests laid wait for Christ to take him, saying, Not on the feast-day. Thirdly, They were concurring as one man: They murder in the way; in the highway, where travellers should be safe, there they murder by consent, aiding and abetting one another in it. See how unanimous wicked people are in doing mischief; and should not good people be so then in doing good? They murder in the way to Shechem (so the margin reads it, as a proper name) such as were going to Jerusalem (for that way Shechem lay) to worship. Or in the way to Shechem (some think) means in the same manner that their father Levi, with Simeon his brother, murdered the Shechemites (Gen. 34), by fraud and deceit; and some understand it of their destroying the souls of men by drawing them to sin. Fourthly, They did it with contrivance: They commit lewdness; the word signifies such wickedness as is committed with deliberation, and of malice prepense, as we say. The more there is of device and design in sin the worse it is. [3.] Look into the body of the people, take a view of the whole house of Israel, and they are all alike (Hos 6:10): I have seen a horrible thing in the house of Israel, and, though it be ever so artfully managed, God discovers it, and will discover it to them; and who can deny that which God himself says that he has seen? There is the whoredom of Ephraim, both corporal and spiritual whoredom; there it is too plain to be denied. Note, The sin of sinners, especially sinners of the house of Israel, has enough in it to make them tremble, for it is a horrible thing, it is amazing, and it is threatening, enough to make them blush, for Israel is thereby defiled and rendered odious in the sight of God. [4.] Look into Judah, and you find them sharing with Israel (Hos 6:11): Also, O Judah! he has set a harvest for thee; thou must be reckoned with as well as Ephraim; thou art ripe for destruction too, and the time, even the set time, of thy destruction is hastening on, when thou that hast ploughed iniquity, and sown wickedness, shalt reap the same. The general judgment is compared to a harvest (Mat 13:39), so are particular judgments, Joe 3:13; Rev 14:15. I have appointed a time to call thee to account, even when I returned the captivity of my people, that is, when those captives of Judah which were taken by the men of Israel were restored, in obedience to the command of God sent them by Oded the prophet, Ch2 28:8-15. When God spared them that time he set them a harvest, that is, he designed to reckon with them another time for all together. Note, Preservations from present judgments, if a good use be not made of them, are but reservations for greater judgments.
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 O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? O…
O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? O Judah, what shall I do unto thee?.... Or, "for thee" (x)? The Lord having observed the effect and consequence of his going and returning to his place, of his leaving his people for a long time under afflictions and in distress; namely, their thorough conversion to him in the latter day, and the blessings attending it; returns to the then present times again, and to the state and condition in which Ephraim and Judah, the ten and two tribes, were; and speaks as one at a loss, and under difficulties, to know what to do with them and for them; how as it were to give them up to ruin and destruction; and yet, having tried all ways with them, and in vain, asks what further was to be done, or could be done, to bring them to a sense of their sins, to reform them, and cause them to return to him;
for your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth way; meaning not the goodness of God bestowed upon them, and the mercy he showed to them; but the goodness that appeared in them, and all the good things done by them, their repentance, reformation, holiness, and righteousness; these, which were only in show, did not last long, came to nothing, and disappeared; like a light cloud in the morning, which vanishes away when the sun rises; or like the dew that falls in the night, which is quickly dried up and gone, after the sun has been up a small time. Thus it was with Ephraim, or the ten tribes, in the time of Jehu; there was a show of zeal for religion, and a reformation from idolatry; but it did not go on, nor last long; and with the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin in the times of Hezekiah and Josiah, who did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord; but then the Jews, in the times of their successors, returned to their former evil ways. And so the best works, holiness and righteousness of men, can no more stand before the justice of God, and the strict examination of it, than a thin light morning cloud, or the small drops of dew, before the light, force, and heat of the sun; nor do formal and carnal professors continue in these things; they may run well for a while, and then drop their profession and religion, and turn from the holy commandment. And this being the case, what can they expect from the Lord?
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(x) "in tuum commodum", Schmidt.
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 What shall I do - What shall I do…
What shall I do - What shall I do more to save you from ruin, and save my own honour, truth, and justice?
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 4. O Ephraim, what shall I do unto…
Verse 4. O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee?] This is the answer of the Lord to the above pious resolutions; sincere while they lasted, but frequently forgotten, because the people were fickle. Their goodness (for goodness it was while it endured) was like the morning cloud that fadeth away before the rising sun, or like the early dew which is speedily evaporated by heat. Ephraim and Judah had too much goodness in them to admit of their total rejection, and too much evil to admit of their being placed among the children. Speaking after the manner or men, the justice and mercy of God seem puzzled how to act toward them. When justice was about to destroy them for their iniquity, it was prevented by their repentance and contrition: when mercy was about to pour upon them as penitents its choicest blessings, it was prevented by their fickleness and relapse! These things induce the just and merciful God to exclaim, "O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? O Judah, what shall I do unto thee?" The only thing that could be done in such a case was that which God did.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Hos 6:4. O Ephraim, what shall I do unto…
Hos 6:4. O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? — Or rather, what shall I do for thee? Here the Lord takes up the discourse again in his own person, and gives an answer to the prayer, or promises, of Judah and Israel: as if he had said, How can I give either of you, O Israel and Judah, any tokens of my favour, since there is no sincerity or stability to be found in you? Such is the essential beneficence of God, that he delights to bestow favours on all his creatures; and here, and elsewhere in the Scriptures, represents himself as it were concerned, whenever their conduct is such that it becomes inconsistent with his attributes, as the all-righteous governor of the universe, to bestow his blessings upon them. Thus we find Christ lamenting over Jerusalem, Mat 23:37; and Isa 59:1-2 representing men’s iniquities as the sole cause of God’s hiding his face from them, and not hearing their prayers: see also Deu 5:29. Your goodness is as a morning cloud, &c. — Your goodness is of a short continuance, and gives way to every temptation, like as the cloud of the morning, and the dew, are dispersed at the first approach of the sun.
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 O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? -…
O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? - It is common with the prophets, first to set forth the fullness of the riches of God’s mercies in Christ, and then to turn to their own generation, and upbraid them for the sins which withheld the mercies of God from “them,” and were hurrying them to their destruction. In like way Isaiah, Isa. 2, having prophesied that the Gospel should go forth from Zion, turns to upbraid the avarice, idolatry, and pride, through which the judgment of God should come upon them.
The promises of God were to those who should turn with true repentance, and seek Him early and earnestly. Whatever of good there was, either in Ephraim or Judah, was but a mere empty show, which held out hope, only to disappoint it. God, who “willeth not that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” appeals to His whole people, “What shall I do unto thee?” He had shown them adundance of mercies; He had reproved them by His prophets; He had chastened them; and all in vain. As he says in Isaiah, “What could have been done more to My vineyard, that I have not done in it?” Isa. 5. Here He asks them Himself, what He could do to convert and to save them, which He had not done. He would take them on their own terms, and whatever they would prescribe to His Almightiness and Wisdom, as means for their conversion, “that” He would use, so that they would but turn to Him. “What means shall I use to save thee, who wilt not be saved?” It has been a bold saying, to describe the “love of Christ which passeth knowledge,” “Christ so loveth souls, that He would rather be crucified again, than allow anyone (as far as in Him lies) to be damned.”
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For your goodness is as a morning cloud - “Mercy” or “loving-kindness,” (which the English margin suggests as the first meaning of the word) stands for all virtue and goodness toward God or man. For love to God or man is one indivisible virtue, issuing from one principle of grace. Whence it is said, “love is the fulfilling of the law. He that loveth another hath fulfilled the law” Rom 13:10, Rom 13:8. And, “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God” 1Jo 4:7. Of this their goodness, he says the character was, that it never lasted. The “morning cloud” is full of brilliancy with the rays of the rising sun, yet quickly disappears through the heat of that sun, which gave it its rich hues. The “morning dew” glitters in that same sun, yet vanishes almost as soon as it appears. Generated by the cold of the night, it appears with the dawn; yet appears, only to disappear. So it was with the whole Jewish people; so it ever is with the most hopeless class of sinners; ever beginning anew, ever relapsing; ever making a show of leaves, good feelings, good aspirations, but yielding no fruit. “There was nothing of sound, sincere, real, lasting goodness in them;” no reality, but all show; quickly assumed, quickly disused.
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 Mercy. Hebrew chesed, (Haydock) "piety," &c., (Grotius) whence the…
Mercy. Hebrew chesed, (Haydock) "piety," &c., (Grotius) whence the word Assideans is derived, 1 Machabees ii. 42. The captives flattered themselves, that as soon as they began to entertain sentiments of repentance, God would relieve them. But he answers that their virtue is inconstant, and that they must suffer in proportion to their crimes.
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).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain what shall I do unto thee--to bring thee back…
what shall I do unto thee--to bring thee back to piety. What more could be done that I have not done, both in mercies and chastenings (Isa 5:4)? At this verse a new discourse begins, resuming the threats (Hos 5:14). See opening remarks on this chapter.
goodness--godliness.
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morning cloud--soon dispersed by the sun (Hos 13:3). There is a tacit contrast here to the promise of God's grace to Israel hereafter, in Hos 6:3. His going forth is "as the morning," shining more and more unto the perfect day; your goodness is "as a morning cloud," soon vanishing. His coming to His people is "as the (fertilizing) latter and former rains"; your coming to Him "as the early dew goeth away."
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 JEHOVAH’S REPLY: SUPERFICIAL REPENTANCE IS NOT ACCEPTABLE TO JEHOVAH…
JEHOVAH’S REPLY: SUPERFICIAL REPENTANCE IS NOT ACCEPTABLE TO JEHOVAH — THE CORRUPTION SEEMS INCURABLE, Hos_6:4-11 a.
No distinct break can be recognized between Hos_6:4, and Hos_8:14. The whole section is a severe denunciation of the people’s attitude toward Jehovah. Hos_6:4 may be regarded as the direct reply to the people’s plea. Jehovah perceives that the sentiments expressed in Hos_6:1-3, are superficial. But if all he has done has not wrought repentance, what can he do with them? From this question he passes immediately to point out their utter misconception of the divine commands and their rebellious career.
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4, 5. What shall I do unto thee — What more can I do to move you to heartfelt repentance?
Goodness — In Hos_2:19, “lovingkindness” (see comment there); here the loving attitude and disposition toward Jehovah. It is unstable and fickle; “evanescent and transient, like the morning cloud which is dispersed by the rising sun,” and like the dew which remains but for a little time.
Therefore — This fickleness has compelled Jehovah to use severe means.
Hewed… by the prophets — He carefully carved them like a piece of hard wood or marble, which requires hard and effective blows. He sought to make Israel a holy nation through the efforts of the prophets.
Slain them by the words of my mouth — As spoken by the prophets. The words of Jehovah have power to kill (Isa_11:4; compare Isa_9:8; Isa_49:2); here is meant not so much extinction of life as infliction of severe judgments. The activity of Elijah and Elisha may be in the prophet’s mind.
Thy judgments are as the light that goeth forth — Better, R.V. margin, following several ancient versions, “my judgments,” that is, the penal judgments of Jehovah. The thought is the same as in the preceding clauses, and the whole sentence is translated most naturally, “My judgment went forth as the light,” that is, so that all could see it and profit thereby. Sometimes the Hebrew light is used in the sense of lightning; if so in this case, it calls attention to the terrible character of the divine judgments.
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 4. The answer of Jehovah, who cannot be satisfied…
4. The answer of Jehovah, who cannot be satisfied with such a superficial repentance and such hasty resolutions of ‘knowing’ Him.
what shall I do unto thee?] ‘What other means can possibly be employed to move thee to a serious repentance?’ Comp. Isa_5:4.
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your goodness] Rather, your piety. The word (khésedh) is the same as that rendered in Hos_6:6 ‘mercy’; and so St Jerome here (‘the mercy which I had been wont to shew’), and Keil (explaining, as in Hos_4:1, ‘your kindness to those in need’). But the context requires another sense—‘your love to God’, and this is what A.V. means, though it expresses it weakly. The Peshito also renders ‘goodness’, and again in Hos_6:6.
as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away] Rather, … and as the night mist which early goeth away (so again Hos_13:3). The ‘cloud’ spoken of, then, is a cloud such as Isaiah speaks of as coming ‘in the heat of harvest’ (Isa_18:4); more precisely, it is one of those dense masses of night-vapour, which the westerly winds of summer bear from the Mediterranean Sea, and which more than supply the place of dew. After ‘making a fair show’ in the bright morning light, they are soon sucked up by the hot sun, and pass away (Neil, Palestine Explored, p. 138). The cognate word in Arabic means a soft rain (comp. Deu_32:2). Comp. on Hos_14:6.
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 (4) Here ends the supposed language of the penitents.…
(4) Here ends the supposed language of the penitents. If it were genuine, and accompanied by a deep sense of sin, it would not be in vain. But the prophet utters the heartrending response and expostulation of Jehovah, who bewails the transitory nature of their repentance.
Your goodness . . .—Better rendered, Your love (to me) is like the morning cloud (which promises rain, and does not give it; like the dew (or, “morning mist;” see Note, Hos_14:5), which early goeth away, vanishing in the blaze of summer day—your tears leaving you parched and dried as before.
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 For your goodness is as a morning cloud, and…
For your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away. A new section here commences. God, having tried various expedients and many ways to restore Israel to faithfulness, finds all those methods unavailing; and now he asks what further means of reclamation he can resort to; what further punishment he is to inflict. Thus Isa_1:5, "Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more!" or what additional privileges can be vouchsafed? Thus in Isa_5:4, "What could have been done more to my vineyard, than I have not done in it?" The reason is then assigned for such questioning; it was the brief duration of Israel"s piety. It was evanescent as the early cloud which floats across a summer"s sky and which the sun soon scatters for ever, or which pro-raises a refreshing shower, but which is exhaled by the sun"s heat; it was transient as the dew which lies in pearly drops of beauty upon the grass, but which the foot of the passing traveler brushes away in a moment. The prophet had, in the opening verses, referred to real repentance; but now, turning to Israel, he reminds them of their repentance by way of con-trust, showing them that it was neither of the consistency nor permanent character required. Proofs of their deficiency lay on the pages of their national history. Hezekiah had done "that which was right in the sight of the Lord;" but his son and successor, Manasseh, "wrought much wickedness in the sight of the Lord, to provoke him to auger." Josiah, again, was eminent for piety, so that "like unto him was there no king before him, that turned to the Lord with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might;" but his successors degenerated, for it is added, "neither after him arose there any like him." The connection and meaning are well given by Kimchi: "How shall I heal you, and how shall I bind you up, as your repentance is by no means perfect? For if the kings of Israel did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, so have they soon turned to do evil, like Jehu. And likewise the kings of Judah, who in the days of Josiah did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord, turned again to do evil in the days of his son and son"s son." Thus he reproves them for the superficial and fleeting character of their goodness. The participles mashkim and holek are either co-ordinated asynde-tously, thus: "coming in the morning, going away;" or the latter is subordinated to the former: in the morning passing away." Kimchi takes the former word as a noun after the form of makbir, equivalent to "abundance"; (Job_36:31) the right rendering is, "as the dew early going away." A somewhat different rendering is proposed by Wunsche, viz. "Your goodness goeth away like a morning cloud, and like the dew in the morning;" "goodness" being the subject, "goeth away" the predicate, "like morning cloud and dew" nearer definitions.
Vers. 4-9. Israel"s inconstant.
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The Lord had just comforted the truly godly portion of the people; he now turns aside and expostulates with the ungodly. Judah as well as Ephraim the two tribes and the ten fell far short, unspeakably short, of the picture of penitence, with the annexed promises, which he had just placed before them. Their state had become so desperate that destruction had become their desert, not because of his severity, but their own sin, themselves being judges.
I THE COMPLAINT OF THEIR INCONSTANCY.
1. God here speaks as if all remedies had proved futile, and as if he were at a loss to know how to deal towards them or what to do with them. Various means had been tried, diverse methods resorted to: he had sent them precious promises of mercy and alarming threatenings of wrath; means and expedients had been exhausted; but they had gone from bad to worse. And now, as though resourceless, the Almighty puts the question as if to their own conscience, "O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? O Judah, what shall I do unto thee?
2. Or perhaps we may rather understand such questions as a lamentation over their case, so deplorable had it become. Thus our Lord wept over Jerusalem and the desperate state of its doomed inhabitants. Nor was it a few tears he dropped (edakruse ), as at the grave of Lazarus; his eyes brimmed over with tears (eklause ), while his lips uttered the touchingly pathetic words, "If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace but now they are hid from thine eyes.
3. The picture of their inconstancy is sadly appropriate. The morning cloud is an attractive object as it floats sublimely overhead on a summer"s morning; but it is as evanescent as conspicuous, suddenly fading away into the "azure deep of air." Still more lovely is the dew which lies copiously on the herbage in the early morning, glistening on every blade of grass and flower petal, and beautifying with its pearly drops the lawns and pasture-grounds. Soon, however, the footstep of man or beast brushes it aside, and it disappears; or it is exhaled, and vanishes by the heat of the advancing day. Thus it was with the goodness of the Hebrew people, both north and south, at the time referred to. Several cases of reformation had taken place in Judah; revivals of religion had occurred, as in the days of Hezekiah, and subsequently in the time of Josiah; and even in Israel we read of the humiliation of Ahab and the zeal of Jehu; but these were to a large extent transient and temporary. So, too, it often happens in times of awakening, sorrow for sin may becloud the brow of the penitent and tears of contrition bedew his eyes; but ere long the excitement dies away, and that sorrow and those tears have passed away, and all serious impressions and gracious influences have vanished with them.
II CONSEQUENCES OF THE INCONSTANCY COMPLAINED OF. These consequences are enumerated with some detail in vers. 5-7, though the fifth verse is differently understood by some, as though it contained two different kinds of messages sent by God to Israel messages of coming wrath to arouse and awaken them, thus hewing them by the prophets and slaying them by the words of his mouth; and messages of mercy, bright as the light and beautiful as the sunbeams, to encourage them, thus causing his judgments to go forth as the light. But this latter sense does not suit the context.
1. First of the consequences is denunciation of wrath, when God denounced their destruction with severity by his messengers the prophets, and the words of his mouth which constituted the message which they delivered; while the justice of the judgments thus visited on them was positively demonstrated and plainly proved, so that it was seen to be and must have appeared even to the guilty sufferers clear as the light.
2. The second consequence is degeneracy in religion. It had degenerated into mere formalism. In place of mercy came sacrifices, and for the knowledge of God burnt offerings were substituted. Outward observances took the place of inward devotion. Instead of piety towards God and charity to man, a tedious round of services was performed. Ritualism was substituted for religion; ceremonialism for clean hands and a pure heart. Obedience to the commandments of God, whether prescriptive or prohibitory, was neglected; morality was dissociated from religion; mere rites supplanted moral or religious duties.
3. But a third consequence was declension of spiritual life in general; this was additional evidence of the religious degeneracy just referred to. Covenant-breaking and treacherous dealing are specified. Like the most reckless of men, they were truce-breakers, bound by no compact, and regardless of the truth of promises. Besides being thus practically dishonest, they were altogether unreliable and faithless. Their sin in this respect, though declared to be against God, involved a fortiori similar conduct in relation to their fellow-men.
III CONFIRMATIONS OF ISRAEL"S GUILT. Two places are specified as instances, and their inhabitants singled out as specimens of the wickedness of the times Gilead on the east and Shechem on the west of Jordan. If Gilead be a city Ramoth-gilead, perhaps a city of refuge and a Levitical city, the sin of its inhabitants was something shocking. When men, who by profession should be an example and pattern to others, descend to practices directly opposed to that profession, and degrade themselves by criminal actions of the worst and basest kind, religion is evil spoken of, a stumbling-block is cast in the way of the weak, the Master himself is stabbed in the house of his professed friends. The people of this highly favored place had set themselves to work iniquity, and that of no ordinary kind; the blood of murdered innocence clave to their hands. Shechem was even worse in this respect. In this other city of refuge the privilege of asylum was profaned. Either guilty persons were admitted and protected for a bribe, when they should have been delivered up to death; or, in addition to thus screening the guilty, those who had committed homicide unwittingly, but who were too poor to offer bribes, were ruthlessly given up to the blood-avenger; or, worst of all and vilest of all, the priests who had got settled in the place formed themselves into robber-gangs or common banditti to rob, and in case of resistance murder, the travelers who were so luckless as to journey that way, or from a bloodthirsty spirit of revenge they waylaid and assassinated the objects of their displeasure. In one way or other blood was defiling the land and crying to Heaven for vengeance. Long before a bloody deed had been done in this very place, when Simeon and Levi in cruel wrathfulness put the defenseless Shechemites to the sword; history in a still worse form now repeated itself.
IV COMMUNITY IN CRIME. The proverbial expression of" Like priest, like people," was fully verified in the case before us. When priests perpetrated such atrocities, what could be expected from the populace? When religious teachers distinguished themselves as ringleaders in wickedness, what could be hoped for among the less privileged of the population? There was, in fact, a community in crime. In the house of Israel, or main body of the people in the northern kingdom, there was wickedness so horrible as to make one shudder or the hair stand on end. However men might attempt concealment, God"s eye detected and discovered their horrid iniquity, while his justice denounced vengeance against it. Ephraim is again foremost and first in the present iniquity, as previously in the idolatrous calf-worship and original revolt. Their whoredom, whether literal or figurative, exercised a contaminating effect on the rest of the ten tribes. How baneful the effects of evil influence! How great the responsibility connected with the exercise of influence! Judah also, from whom better was to be expected, with the ancient sanctuary among them and a purer ritual, had been seduced to sin; the example and influence of their brethren in the north had, no doubt, helped their depravation, evil communications corrupting good manners. Be this as it may, they had sown the wind and must in consequence reap the whirlwind. As they had sown and what they had sown, they must by-and-by reap. The general judgment is likened to harvest; so also are special judgments. (For the time specified, see Exposition.) The Judahites who had been made captives by Israel had been set at liberty through the interposition of the prophet Oded. (2Ch_28:8-15) God had spared them then, but set them a harvest at another time; as it has been remarked, "Preservations from present judgments, if a good use be not made of them, are but reservations for greater judgments.
Vers. 4, 5. Fugitive piety.
A thoughtful reader cannot fail to observe the contrast here suggested between the constancy of Jehovah"s grace (ver. 3) and the inconstancy of Israel"s piety (ver. 4). If Israel would (rely "return," and "follow on to know the Lord" now, all would yet be well. But, alas! the twelve tribes are as fickle as he is faithful.
I GOD"S COMPLAINT REGARDING THE JEWISH PEOPLE. (Ver. 4) In Eastern lands the sky is often heavily hung with clouds at early dawn; lint, so soon as the sun rises, he begins to suck them up their many-colored glory quickly fades, and in an hour is time they are gone. In the morning, also, the dewdrops adorn the herbage like myriads of sparkling diamonds; but the first acts of radiation after sunrise dissipate all the jewelry, and soon leaf and blade languish in the heat. Those two figures the Lord uses in this touching expostulation. Israel"s piety, when the people did show any, was similarly fascinating, promising, and evanescent. It could no more be reckoned up, 0n than "a morning cloud." It was short-lived as "the early dew." There are many examples in Scripture of such fugitive piety.
(1) In the national history of Israel. At Sinai the people promised obedience, and then made the golden calf. The age of the Judges was a time of alternate sinning and repenting, and repenting and sinning. Each of the reformations under John, Elijah, and Hezekiah turned out to be "as a morning cloud.
(2) In the lives of individuals. It is enough to mention such cases as King Saul, the young ruler who came to Jesus, Felix, Demas, the Galatian professors. (Gal_5:7) We meet with morning-cloud religion constantly still. It is frequently found:
1. In the time of childhood. "The dew of youth" is always beautiful; and sometimes the grace of the Holy Spirit is in it, and it fertilizes. The morning cloud of childhood"s faith is often a "vision splendid," for Trailing clouds of glory do we come From God, who is our Home: Heaven lies about us in our infancy! (Wordsworth.)
But the piety of childhood does not always bear the test. It sometimes turns out to be merely emotional, and nothing more. In the hour of temptation "it goeth away.
1. In the season of affliction. Many a man, in the day upon which some storm of sickness or bereavement has strewn his life with wreckage, resolves that when the clouds are removed he will cultivate the friendship of God, and trust in his providence, and keep his Law. But, after prosperity has returned, he does not pay that which he has vowed.
2. As the result of common grace. Common grace is that influence of the Holy Spirit which is more or less granted to all men. In connection with his operations men who are unregenerate have their seasons of deep conviction, and of anxious thought regarding spiritual things. Sometimes riley "receive the Word with joy", (Mat_13:20) and are "made partakers of the Holy Ghost", (Heb_6:4) and begin to lead an externally religious life. But, if experiences of this kind are not accompanied by a real change of heart, they pass away like "a morning cloud." Such fugitive piety is fatally defective. It is:
(1) Unreal. For, a characteristic mark of true religion is steadfastness. "The path of the just" is not "as a morning cloud," but "as the morning" itself, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day". (Pro_4:18)
(2) Unhappy. Those who do not "follow on to know the Lord," but allow themselves to be hindered by the discouragements and sufferings which belong to the Christian life, come to identify religion only with these. "Pliable" associates piety with the "Slough of Despond," "Formalist and Hypocrisy" with "the Hill Difficulty," "Timorous and Mistrust" with the lions." It is only pilgrims like "Christian," who endure to the end, that shall taste the joys of" the House Beautiful," and "the Delectable Mountains," and "the land of Beulah.
(3) Unhopeful. Those who "receive the Word into stony places," or "among the thorns," become a very hopeless class. The habit of taking sudden fits of goodness, each of which is followed by a relapse into sin, is very hardening to the heart.
II GOD"S METHOD WITH THE PEOPLE. (Ver. 5) The Lord speaks as if he has been at his wit"s end to know what measures to adopt in order to win the nation back to godliness. His words are, "What shall I do unto thee? What could have been done more to my vineyard that I have not done in it?". (Isa_5:4) His wisdom can devise no new expedient. His policy hitherto has been one of mingled goodness and severity, and all that he can do is to continue that policy still. So:
1. He sends his prophets to hew." The figure here is taken from the art of the statuary. Human souls are like blocks of marble, and God is the great Sculptor. He sent the Hebrew prophets to cut and carve Israel into the Divine image; for, while the nation"s piety was thin as vapor, its heart was hard as adamant. This metaphor has a lesson in it regarding the Christian ministry. A large part of the preacher"s work is to prick slumbering consciences, and to hammer stony hearts. It is true, of course, that the New Testament message is emphatically "the gospel;" yet the background of the "good news" is necessarily the bad news of guilt and sin and wrath. Christian sermons addressed to the natural man cannot avoid being denunciatory. Our pulpit teaching, both in matter and manner, should reflect as clearly as possible the teaching of the New Testament. In delivering the message of condemnation especially, the speaker should take care to be not only faithful but tender.
2. He uses his Law to slay." "The words of God"s mouth" are fitted to produce the recognition of sin in its true nature and consequences. The ministry of the Law convicts and condemns. God"s word "slays" when it convinces of guilt and pollution, and produces thereby self-condemnation and remorse. A man must be thus slain in relation to sin before his heart, can be prepared for the reception of the gospel. "Is not my Word like as a fire? saith the Lord". (Jer_23:29) "The Word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword," etc. (Heb_4:12)
3. He comes in a morning of judgment. "Thy judgments" we take to mean the judgments inflicted on thee, i.e. on the Jewish people. God will prepare for them such a morning as they do not desire to see at all. lie will come "as the light" to manifest their sins, and to punish them. The judgments shall be palpable to every eye, and shall be manifestly just. Jehovah shall be "clear when he judges.
CONCLUSION. These two verses remind us
(1) that God"s compassions fail net, but
(2) that persistent sinfulness on man"s part will shut him out from the enjoyment of the Divine mercy. C.J.
God"s grief over evanescent goodness.
There are times in a man"s life when he begins to fear that he is too impotent or too sinful for the notice of God. In the activity of the day he may be free from such a thought; but in the solemn night, when he looks up to the vast canopy above him and thinks how those same stars have been brooding over the earth amidst all its changes, there comes to him the thought of David, "When I consider thy heavens," etc. Still more is he oppressed by the sense of the moral distance between himself and God which has been created by sin. If only infinite knowledge can reach him in his insignificance, only infinite mercy can reach him in his degradation l Of both these attributes we have an explicit assurance in the text. Thou art as much his care, as if beside Nor man nor angel were in all the world.
God would save the world even at the cost of his Son; nor will he give up the sinner till the last hope of saving him is gone, destroyed by the sinner"s own hand. Our text is the sob of a Father"s heart after all means of reclaiming the prodigal had failed.
I THAT GOD LONGS FOR THE SALVATION OF MEN, AND SEEKS IN EVERY WAY TO EFFECT IT.
1. This has been revealed to the world. Even under the old dispensation it was expressly declared, if Moses would know the name or character of God, the Lord passed by before him, declaring himself to be "merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth". (Exo_34:6, Exo_34:7) Daniel (Dan_9:9) was bold in his prayer, because he could say, "To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against him". (see also Mic_7:18 Eze_18:32, etc.) In the fullness of time God sent his Son, that men might know his love, that it might be "commended" to them; yet even the Son of God was cast out and crucified. Illustrate by the parable of the wicked husbandmen. The question in our text was answered in the cross. Beyond that, as the means of pardon and the center of attraction, God can do no more. If there be any question unsolved respecting the absolute, infinite, and perfect God, we find its only answer for us in Christ the Embodiment of love, the Fount of mercy, to all who come to him. Give examples of those who came during Christ"s ministry. "No man knoweth the Father, but the Son; and he to whom the Son shall reveal him." Compare the text with the words of Christ on Olivet. (Mat_23:37)
2. This has been proved in human experience. It is one thing to feel compassion, another thing to show it. Much sentimentalism is in the world (stirred by fiction) which finds no outlet in benevolence. But the thought and act of God are one. He is recalling here what he had done for Israel, as well as what he had felt towards Israel, when he asked, "What shall I do unto thee?" Deliverance from Egypt, help in the wilderness, settlement in Canaan, might have been cords to bind them to Jehovah; but "they soon forgot his works." Wealth, success, victory, were ascribed to political skill or warlike prowess, and not to him who "gave power to get wealth." Examples can be given in modern history of nations losing sobriety, self-restraint, modesty, thrift, equity, etc., by the very blessings which were designed to keep them near God. Thus is it with individuals. Their lives are unwearied by pain and their minds untainted by disease; they have had no heritage of evil habit, or of gross shame from their parents; in their homes they are encircled by love and baptized by prayer. Whence and why all this? Is it that strength may be wasted in pleasure, that thought may feed itself on the husks of Positivism, that success may generate self-confidence, that men may be enchained more lastingly to earth? "Knowest thou not," says St. Paul, "that the goodness of God leadeth to repentance?" "We beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice." (Text.) Besides all this, sorrow and disappointment have spoken unmistakably. The scheme has broken down and left you penniless; illness has swept you from daily work, leaving you like driftwood on the shore; death has crossed the threshold, and said, "Eternity is near!" What more can God do to arouse to repentance? Words of man, inspired as messages from God, have borne witness. Few in this Christian land can say, "I was never warned against sin, and never knew that" God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself. Remembering all the pleading and warning sent through the Church and the Wind and the home to conscience, may not the text be uttered by Jehovah over many?
II THAT THE MEANS EMPLOYED TO BRING MEN TO REPENTANCE SOMETIMES FAIR TO DO MORE THAN AROUSE TRANSIENT FEELING. "Your goodness is as the morning cloud," etc. Nothing is more mysterious than the struggle of God"s Spirit with man"s soul. God created free men and accepted all the responsibilities of doing so, foreseeing the possibilities of their development. Laying aside his power to rule by decree, and watch the work of automatons, he endued man with liberty, so that it could be said to the impenitent, "Ye do always resist the Holy Ghost." If we perish, it is in defiance of him. It was by fighting against God that the good feeling aroused in Israel was dissipated like the morning cloud.
1. Examples of this transient goodness abound. Hosea saw hearers moved to tears, knew their resolves to have done with the idols and return to Jehovah; yet all this came to nothing. In our day, some visited in illness vow that they will live a different life; yet with returning health comes returning indifference. Others, in the hour of temptation, are delivered by the uprising of tender memories; but these are not abiding. In brief, no one has been condemned who could not recall good resolves. The past is strewn with their fragments.
2. The illustration of transient goodness in the text is suggestive. Few things are more beautiful than the cloud tinged with the rosy light of dawn.
In an Eastern land it would be full of promise too. It might prove like that over which Elijah rejoiced, only as a man"s hand in itself, but the precursor of hosts of rain-laden clouds which would deluge the world with blessing. But imperceptibly it vanishes; and once gone, no power on earth can recall it. The "early dew" is exquisite in beauty, scattered like flashing jewels over things unsightly and base, as well as tipping each blade of grass and filling the cups of the flowers. But when the sun has risen the dew is gone, and soon the herbage is parched. How fitting are these illustrations of tears, feelings, resolves, which cause hope to the onlooker, though they leave the life unchanged! In the irreligious home, amid the evil companionship, under the influence of the skeptical writer, through the business of life, etc., these, like the morning cloud and early dew, pass away.
3. The peril of such transient goodness may be shown by:
(1) Its gradual and unnoticed departure. It is difficult to fix the moment when the dew disappeared, and equally hard to judge of the time when religious impressions really fade. Probably Judas had no expectation of earning the execration of men and the curse of God. His heart must often have been touched by the words and love of Christ, yet, resisting these, at last he imbrued his hands in the Savior"s blood.
(2) The woefulness of having such feeling gone forever. No road is worse than that which has been often thawed and often frozen; no curse worse than to have conscience seared, and capacity for feeling gone. Still to the undecided does our merciful Father say, "O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? A.R.
Transitory goodness.
The climate of Palestine is dry, and accordingly dew is especially precious. Hence it is a natural figure of welcome blessings. "I will be dew unto Israel; As the dew on Hermon." Rain, too, is now and again infrequent, and is therefore longed for and prized. "He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass." Both dew and rain are necessary for vegetation and life, and are appropriate emblems of highest good. And as a light dew is too soon scorched up, and as a passing rain-cloud disappoints the expectations of the husbandman, these serve to set forth such good signs and omens as are not fulfilled and realized. So they were used by Hoses with reference to Israel; and such a purpose they may subserve in fixing attention upon superficial and transitory goodness wherever it is found.
I A CERTAIN KIND OF GOODNESS IS ADMITTED. The case is that of an irreligious man who by some means is led to give attention to spiritual teaching, and to take interest and even pleasure in it. One hitherto impenitent now sheds tears of sorrow because of his sin. One formerly unrighteous now makes efforts after justice and holiness, and the reformation of his conduct is obvious and undeniable. Among the young we often meet with cases corresponding with the figurative language of the text. Deep impressions seem to be made, if we may judge by the outward and unmistakable appearances.
II VARIOUS CAUSES ACCOUNT FOR THIS KIND OF GOODNESS. Events which have happened in the order of God"s providence, some striking calamity or bereavement, some faithful admonition of parent or teacher, some impressive sermon, or some startling word from Holy Writ, the example of decided piety presented by some one near and deal any of these may well account for the kind of goodness described in the figurative language of the text.
III THIS KIND OF GOODNESS IS OFTEN TRANSITORY. As the dew of the morning dries up in the blazing heat of the sun; as the gathering cloud disperses and vanishes away; as the blossom of spring is blasted and issues in no fruit; as the splendid sunrise is followed by an unsettled, dreary, or stormy day; so the promise put forth by the young, the ardent, the impressible, is often doomed to issue in disappointment. This may be owing to natural levity and fickleness, to the influence of worldly society, to violent temptations, or to the mere lapse of time. But one thing is indisputable, and that is the contrast between the promise and the fulfillment.
IV THE KIND OF GOODNESS IS VERY MISCHIEVOUS. And this in many ways. Spiritual dryness and barrenness return, and are worse than before. A reproach accrues to the religion of Christ, and a discouragement falls upon the ministers of Christ. Such cases act as a dissuasive from a religious profession, and they are destructive of the spiritual prospects of the unhappy persons who experience the transitory change.
V THE FEELINGS WITH WHICH GOD CONTEMPLATES THIS KIND OF GOODNESS. He is here represented as asking, "What shall I, what can I, do?" Such an inquiry is a revelation of deep interest, of willingness to use every method to create a more permanent impression, of grief that all which has hitherto been done has, alas! been done in vain. What a revelation of the Divine heart!
VI THE FEELINGS WITH WHICH THOSE TO WHOM THIS DESCRIPTION APPLIES SHOULD REGARD THEMSELVES. Such should ask, "How is our superficial character, our inconsistent conduct, regarded by God?" Taking a profoundly serious view of their conduct and state, they should repent, and humbly seek the influences of the Holy Spirit, that their hearts may be as good soil, bearing much fruit. T.
A threefold theme.
"O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? O Judah, what shall I do unto thee? for your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away." What shall I do to thee, O Ephraim! What shall I do to thee, O Judah! For your goodness is like the morning cloud, And like the dew which early departeth (Henderson.)
Here we have a threefold theme of thought.
I DIVINE SOLICITUDE. Here the Infinite condescends to speak after the manner of men, that men may appreciate him. The language seems to imply:
1. I have done much for thee. It has the sound of another utterance, "What more could I have done to my vineyard that has not been done in it?" Isa_5:4). God has done much for Ephraim and Judah. He had given them emancipators, lawgivers, priests, prophets; granted to them for ages many signal and merciful manifestations of himself.
2. I am ready to do more. My heart overflows with compassion. Your rebellions and your iniquities have not exhausted my love. I am still ready to show you mercy.
3. I am fettered in my actions. I know not what to do; I am nonplussed. The Infinite has limits of action; Almightiness has restrictions. All things are not possible with God. It is not possible for him to tell a lie, it is not possible for him to be immoral, it is not possible for him to make moral intelligences virtuous and happy contrary to their will. Christ said to the men of Jerusalem, "I would, but ye would not." "What shall I do?" What wonderful language this for the Infinite to employ! His incapacity at this point is his glory. It is his glory that he will not outrage moral minds.
II HUMAN PERVERSITY. The right answer to this appeal, "What shall I do unto thee?" would have been, "Whatever thou willest, Lord;" "Not our will, but thine, be done." We cordially submit to thine authority, we loyally acquiesce in thy arrangements, we lovingly yield to thy operations. This is the language of heaven, hence God knows no restrictions in his operations there; all go with him, and he pours forth his love freely and without restraint. On earth it is not so. Men set their wills in hostility to his. Their language is, "We will not have thee to reign over us." They are rebels, and will not lay down their arms of hostility and become loyal subjects, hence they must be crushed; they are diseased, and will not accept the means he has prescribed for their restoration; they are captives, and will not leave their ceils though he has thrown their doers wide open; they are paupers dying of starvation, but will not take from him the Bread of life which he offers to them without money and without price. Hence he says, "What shall I do unto thee?" I can reverse the laws of nature, I can break up old universes and create new ones; but I cannot make beings whom! have endowed with the power of freedom virtuous and happy contrary to their own will. Why will ye die?
III EVANESCENT GOODNESS. "Your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away." Whether the goodness here refers exclusively to human kindness or includes some amount of pious sentiment, it matters not; it was so evanescent that it was of no worth. It was like the cloud, empty, fickle, disappointing. When it appeared first, men thought it had in it the refreshing element, and they expected a shower to come down on the parched earth; but a gust of wind came and swept it out of sight. Like the "early dew," it sparkles as diamonds on the greensward for a short hour, but is soon exhaled by the summer beams. Evanescent goodness is worthless. Most men have some amount of goodness in them, which continues for a time and then passes away. Goodness is of no worth to any being until it becomes supreme and permanent.
CONCLUSION. Thank God for endowing thee with freedom; it is a fearful power. It gives to men a widely different destiny even here. From the same cradle"s side, From the same mother"s knee, One to long darkness and the frozen tide, One to the peaceful seal
But a destiny in eternity infinitely more dissimilar. It leads some to God"s heights of blessedness, others to the deepest depths of perdition. D.T.
The day-dawn and the rain.
The Jewish doctors found in these words a prophecy of Christ. We Christians cannot do less. It is Christ whom our faith must grasp under these two figures the day-dawn and the rain. There is a twofold coming of the Son of God the first in his own Person to establish and confirm the gospel; the second in his Holy Spirit to apply it to the heart. The one of these may be very fitly compared to the morning, the other to the rain.
I THERE ARE POINTS IN WHICH THE DAY-DAWN AND THE RAIN RESEMBLE EACH OTHER.
1. They have the same manifest origin. They come from heaven. They are not of man"s making and ordering, but of God"s. It is not less so with the gospel and Spirit of Christ. Man neither invented nor discovered them. They carry their evidence with them, like Heaven"s sun and Heaven"s rain.
2. They have the same mode of operation on the part of God. The mode of operation is soft and silent. What so gentle as the day-dawn? What more soft than the spring"s falling rain? And like to these in their operations are the gospel and the Spirit of Christ. When the Savior came into the world it was silently and alone. His kingdom came not with observation. The Spirit"s great work is not in the earthquake, or the mighty rushing wind, but in the still small voice.
3. They have the same mode of approach to us in perfect fullness and freeness. They are, like God"s great gifts, without money and without price, and they come with an overflowing plenty. In this they are fit and blessed emblems of the way in which Christ approaches us, both with his gospel and his Spirit.
4. They have the same object and end. It is the transformation of death into life, and the raising of that which lives into higher and fairer form. The gospel and Spirit of Christ have the same aim life and revival. Christ is no less earnest for our eternal life in the one than in the other.
II THERE ARE POINTS OF DISTINCTION BETWEEN THE DAYDAWN AND THE RAIN.
1. Christ"s approach to men has a general and yet a special aspect. The sun comes every morning with a broad, unbroken look, shining for all and singling out none. But the rain, as it descends, breaks into drops, and hangs with its globules on every blade. Them is a wonderful individualizing power in the rain. There is a similar twofold aspect in the coming of Christ. The gospel enters the world with the broad universal look of daylight, it singles out none, that it may exclude none. But Christ comes after another manner in the Spirit. Here no man can tell how God is dealing with another. He approaches the door of the single heart and speaks to itself.
2. Christ"s coming is constant, yet variable. He visits men in his gospel, steady and unchanging as the sun. But with the Holy Spirit it is otherwise. For the rain man knows no fixed rule. It may come soon or late, in scanty showers or plentiful floods. The gift of God"s Spirit is no doubt regulated also by laws, but these laws are hidden from us in their final ground. The emblems show us in God"s working the two great features of law and freedom.
3. Christ"s coming may be with gladness, and yet also with trouble. What more joyful than the returning sun? But God comes also in the cloud, and there is a shade over the face of nature sometimes in the thunder-cloud, dark and threatening. There is gladness in the gospel, there is trouble in the conviction by the Spirit. But Christ comes in both.
4. Christ"s coming in his gospel and his coming in the Spirit tend to a final and perfect union. They are indispensable to each other. The gospel without the Spirit would be the sun shining on a rainless waste. The Spirit without the gospel would be the rain falling in a starless night. Christians need both. Some have a very distinct perception of the gospel in its freeness and fullness, but they lack the life of the Spirit They need the rain Some experience the workings of the Spirit in conviction, etc., but they have only a small portion of the sunlight and the joy. Our souls can only live and grow when the sun and the showers intermingle. (Adapted from Dr. John Ker.) J.O.
Vers. 4-6. Evanishing goodness.
So froward, heedless, fickle, and incorrigible had Ephraim proved, that God did not know what more he could do with him. The same was true of Judah. The tender mode of speech, "O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? O Judah, what shall I do unto thee?" shows how loath God is to pass from mercy to judgment. His heart yearns for the conversion of the objects of his solicitude.
I PIETY VALUELESS, IF EVANESCENT. (Ver. 4) Ephraim arid Judah had fits of piety of goodness; but they did not last. They are compared here to the "morning cloud the vapor which the heat of the sun sucks up as the day advances; and to the "early dew," thick and fresh at dawn, but soon carried off by evaporation. Such an instance of momentary goodness we have in Ephraim in the reign of Pekah, when, rebuked by Oded the prophet, "certain of the heads of the children of Ephraim" compelled the return of the captives from Judah; (2Ch_28:12, 2Ch_28:15) and there would probably be instances of the same kind under the preaching of Hosea himself. Note:
1. The defect of this kind of piety. It lacked root. It had no depth of earth. It promised well, but brought forth no practical fruit of righteousness. The nature was superficially moved, but there was neither genuine conviction of sin nor true turning of the heart to God.
2. The manifestation of this defect. The impressions did not endure. They hardly dured" even for a while," but as soon as the sun" was risen with a burning heat", (Jam_1:2) they" were scorched" and withered away" (Matthew 13). The test of real piety is its endunngness. No piety is worth having which will not endure the heat of the daytime the test applied to it by the everyday work, trials, engrossmerits, and temptations of life. Yet many have known no other piety than that which consists in passing convictions, in weak desires, in good resolutions that come to nothing, in vague and easily frustrated efforts after amendment.
II JUDGMENT INEVITABLE, IF REPENTANCE IS NOT SINCERE. (Ver. 5) "Therefore." God says; that is,
(1) because of the failure of milder measures to bring Ephraim to repentance;
(2) because of this evanishing goodness, which showed the necessity for something that would reach the depths of the nature;
(3) because of the sin that waited for punishment, and now must be punished, seeing that the people so utterly refused to turn from it; he is compelled by his prophets to denounce judgments against them. The words of the prophets are said to do that which the judgments themselves will accomplish "slay to indicate the certainty of the result. The thing is as good as done when God says it. Certainty of fulfillment is a characteristic of God"s Word. His judgments would be "as the light that goeth forth,
1. Majestic.
2. Obeying a law (sunrise).
3. Sudden: the lightning. (Mat_24:27)
4. Revealing: God"s judgments reveal the sin against which they are directed. (Hos_7:1)
If the reading in the Authorized Version, "thy judgments," be retained, it is still God"s judgments that are referred to. They belonged to Ephraim as failing upon him.
III SACRIFICE USELESS, IF WITHOUT LOVE. (Ver. 6) "Mercy," or love to man, is the obverse of "knowledge of God," and the proof of its existence. The Law is summed up in love. It is love God looks for as the reality of religion.
1. Love to man shows itself indeed deeds. It is not a thing of "word" or of "tongue," but of" deed" and of "truth ". (1Jn_3:18) It proves its reality by the acts in which it embodies itself. (1Jn_3:17) This love is the substance of piety. It is the true ritual. "Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless," etc. (Jam_1:27) It is this class of deeds Christ looks to. (Mat_10:42 Mat_25:35, Mat_25:36) No one ever laid such great stress on kind deeds, or so entirely embodied the law of love m his own life, as Christ did.
2. The absence of love shows itself in wicked deeds in injustice, robbery, violence, etc. These are the crimes here charged against Ephraim (vers. 810).
3. Without love no outward settee is of any use. No sacrifices, alms-giving, prayers, new moons, or fasts. (Isa_1:13-15 Isa_58:3-8 Mat_9:13) In vain do we keep sabbaths, practice austerities, uphold orthodoxy, wait on religious ordinances, and engage in outward works of piety, if this, the one thing needful, is wanting. J.O. (1Co 13)
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 Your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as…
Hos_6:4
Your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away.
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Instances of inconstancy in good men
Mens convictions die away, their resolutions prove abortive; they run well, but dont continue; begin to build, but leave their work unfinished This is a most unhappy case, as dangerous and fatal as it is common.
I. The causes of this wretched inconstancy. Is it because men have no power, or no encouragement to do otherwise? Neither can be the reason, because where there is no power at all, there is no sin, and where there is no encouragement to exert the power we have, if we are not altogether without sin, yet we seem to have such an excuse for our sins, as takes away much the greatest part of their guilt. One represents God as the author of sin; the other as wanting in goodness and love to His creatures. That so many do no more than begin well, is not from want of power; since God, the righteous Governor and Judge of the world, never requires beyond the measure of what He has given. Does God command all men to repent? The reason is that by the grace of the Gospel all shall be enabled to repent who do not wilfully refuse and resist that grace. And no one can plead in excuse for himself, when he repents of his sins, and then relapses into them, and after all his fair promises and repeated resolutions, never makes thorough work of it, that he has not sufficient motives to make him exert himself. The true causes of inconstancy are--
1. Want of seriously and distinctly considering the nature of the change upon which they are entering, the reasons for it, and the pains and time it will cost to effect it.
(1) They dont consider that every sin is to be forsaken, and every duty to be practised; nor do they reflect what these particular sins and duties are, and what is meant by forsaking the one and practising the other. For want of a distinct notion of their duty, men find themselves bewildered, are at a loss how to proceed, and never want an excuse for not doing what they ought, or for doing what they ought not, when they are under strong persuasion.
(2) Men dont seriously consider the reason upon which their purpose of a change ought to be founded, and therefore they miscarry. The little they do is not the effect of judgment and rational conviction, so much as of some passion accidentally raised in them.
(3) Men dont consider the pains they must take, and the time that must be spent in effecting this change (Luk_14:28). The difficulties of religion are to be duly considered. It is as wrong to exaggerate the difficulties as to underestimate them. Conversion is a work of time. Men are not presently cured of the vices which have grown habitual. Habits which have been long contracted are not immediately unlearnt again, and contrary habits planted in their room. Some have talked as if the new creature were an instantaneous production, and the habits of grace were infused in a moment. And this representation has done no little mischief.
2. Another cause of mens inconstancy is their being but half resolved. And this is a very common case. They are so far from being fully determined as hardly to know which side they shall take. It is not strange that such imperfect resolutions are quickly broken. Instability of conduct is the necessary effect of irresoluteness of temper.
3. Another cause is mens not exercising a suitable caution and vigilance, in order to avoid the occasions of sin, and all those temptations that beset them, and endanger their falling back into their former way of living. If they would not fall, why do they walk in the same slippery places?
4. Another cause is their not persevering in the instrumental duties of religion, particularly the duty of secret prayer. Did they from day to day maintain their intercourse with heaven, they would be much better prepared to do the will of God upon earth, and to resist and overcome any temptation which should beset them.
II. The certainty that these ineffective purposes of amendment, these mere beginnings, will not be accepted instead of true repentance and holiness of life.
1. The Gospel requires nothing less than repentance and true holiness. This is abundantly evident from Scripture passages.
2. Such an imperfect transient goodness is not that repentance and holiness of life upon which the Gospel insists. Is confessing sin the same as confessing and forsaking it? Can they be said to repent, who do not bring forth fruits meet for repentance? And the character of a man is to be taken from his habitual practice. He that doeth righteousness is righteous.
3. Out of regard to the perfections of His nature, and the declarations of His Holy Word, God will not dispense His saving mercy upon any other terms than those set forth in the Gospel. Evangelical repentance and obedience there must be.
III. What method we should take if we would not only make some entrance upon the ways of religion, but go on in them, and hold out to the end. Avoid those things which are the usual occasions of inconstancy in this most important affair. And give ourselves to frequent meditation of those great truths on which religion is founded. And often renew our good resolutions, and arm ourselves every day before we go forth into the business and temptations of the world. Bend our chief force against those sins which do most easily beset us, and most frequently overcome us. Frequently make this reflection, that while we spend our time in trifling thus with religion, life not only goes on, but goes off too, and death approaches. Let us reflect every one for himself, whether, and how far, this subject concerns us.
1. Consider that you have all the difficulty without the benefit of a thorough reformation of heart and life.
2. You can have no real satisfaction in your present course.
3. Every time you return to your sins, after you have resolved to forsake them, and begun to do it, you make your condition worse than it was before.
4. In what light will your present manner of acting appear when you come to die?
IV. The method we should take if we would not only make some entrance upon the ways of religion, but go on in them, and hold out to the end.
1. Good men are too apt to change as to their diligence and activity in the Christian life.
2. Hath the time been when the Christian was vigilant and circumspect? One would think that the advantages he must have reaped from thence should have kept him so; and yet they do not always effect it.
3. There may be the loss, as to the good mans conscience, of its former sensibility and authority. Conscience is an inward sense and feeling of good and evil. Sensibility of conscience appears not so much in discovering the nature as the degrees of moral good and evil. How careful should we be to maintain this sensibility and tenderness of conscience.
4. Hath the Christian disengaged himself to a great degree from the affections of the lower life? He is very happy herein, but let him net be secure, as if he was not liable to a change. The following, are among these affections of the lower life, which even in Christians sometimes prevail too much.
(1) Admiration and esteem of worldly things.
(2) Love of sensual pleasure.
(3) Immoderate hopes and fears, joy and sorrow about present things.
(4) Intemperate anger, or a proneness to kindle into warm resentments upon very trivial occasions.
(5) A spirit of devotion is not always kept up.
His indevotion appears in his disuse of religious thoughts and contemplations, in which time was that he more frequently employed himself. And also in the little pleasure which Christians take in the duties and exercises of religion. It is attended with want of desire after spiritual and eternal blessings. Two directions.
1. Fix in your minds a just and lively apprehension of the much greater peace and pleasure which attend an even and regular course of piety than the contrary.
2. Have your eye upon the first tendencies of the heart to wander from God, and immediately oppose and check them. (H. Bonar, D. D.)
Religious constancy
This is a mournful voice of expostulation. The thing which aroused the prophets sad lament is as familiar to us as it was to those who lived in that day. The same temptations follow the same passions, and substantially the same experiences are the result. The inconstancy of men in goodness; the facility with which they are excited; the quickness with which they recognise the better way; the rapidity with which they forget it,--these are the themes of the Old Testament and the New alike, and also of observing men in profane literature. The topic is the inconstancy, the remission, of religious emotion. There is a vast amount of tremulous excitement, there is a great deal of feeling, which runs for an hour very deeply; and yet, the transientness of religious life and of religious feeling is just as much a matter of remark to-day as it was a thousand years ago, and just as much a matter of remark in the Church as it was in the synagogue. The obvious reason will be, of course, in the nature of the human soul; in its proclivity downward and backward towards the animal, on which it is based and from which it sprang. Men have a very brief religious experience because the power of the world is so strong over them. There are many persons who do not want to be conformed to the world; who do not desire to have any fluxes of feeling. They ask, How shall I prolong these experiences?
I. There is much error in the doctrine of the uses of feeling, and therefore of its degrees, and of the possibility of equal emotion on the part of all. If religion were the putting of persons through a Divine process from which each one emerged amply equipped, and equipped like every other, then every one might demand that his experience should be like that of every other one; but such is not the case. Men are brought into the religious state with all their conditions of constitution, or of soul and mind, with all their conditions of education and non-education, with all their misteachings and prejudices; and they begin at different points. Each one has problems of his own in life. God in His providence deals with each particular man according to the method which is adapted to him. Feeling is not to be sought as a luxury. The object of feeling is to be an operative one. Though there should be pleasure in it. Persons who enter a Christian life, and seek to promote such a life by the experience of feeling, exquisite, abundant, and continuous, may think that they are seeking religion, while often they are only seeking self. What, then, is to the the limit of feeling? How much feeling is a man to have? Enough to maintain himself vitally. Enough to impel him on every side to the duties which belong to his station and to his nature. The most powerful loves in life are latent. Everywhere in life, true and wholesome feeling tends to clothe itself in action. I have known many persons who gave up a thousand ethical duties for the sake of having experience, as it is called. There are many who are attempting to be eminent in their Christian life by having a full-orbed emotive experience all the time. But there are a great many persons so constituted that depths and currents of feeling such as others have are quite impossible to them. The law of the production of feeling must be better understood. It is thought that feeling so exists in men that one has but to wish for it, long for it, pray for it, try for it, to have it come. No person trying on any other side of the mind would ever come to such a conclusion. Try it with caution, or mirthfulness. Would they come at demand? The causes which produce feeling are various. There are certain ideas or elemental truths which produce the sense of awe: there are others that produce the sense of faith; others that produce love, or joy, or sorrow, or remorse. Whoever wants a given feeling must understand what are the truths which stand connected with its production. Take also into consideration the law of continuity of feeling in men. Feeling, when it becomes continuous, is insanity. Emotions never run in channels. They are always changing. They rise and fall. If one observes a wholesome mind, he will find that there are scores of feelings which alternate, first one being in the ascendency and then another. The on-going of the impulses of a wholesome mind is like the progress of a time. Nothing is worse for a person than to attempt all the time to have just one state of mind, because he thinks that to be a Christian is to have God in ones thoughts all the while. You cannot do it, and you ought not to try to do it. It is unnatural. There is a law of the inspiration of distinctively moral feeling. There is an impression that religious feeling is the direct product of the Divine Spirit. It may be, as harvests are the product of the sun; but the sun works differently on different growths. Now, the moral or spiritual part of a human being, that part which makes him a man, not an animal, comes from God. It is universal mind, moving in universal space, that gives us vitality, and inspires our reason and moral emotions in all their variations. A true moral feeling is an inspiration of God; but it is an inspiration which acts differently in different persons. There is one class of men whose emotions distinctly run to ideas. All mens emotions follow reason. But there are some men who have no distinct conceptions of moral emotion except those which evolve ideas--that is, differentiated truths, or a series of propositions. As, for instance, John Calvin. The beauty-loving element has power to open the door of the soul, and produce profound moral emotions. There are those whose moral feelings are largely dependent on the imagination. Two elements constitute the whole revelation of God, fact and fiction. The imagination, working with the reason, constitutes faith, generically considered. Every man should have a susceptibility of moral emotion through the imaginative element. How can any man read the Apocalypse of John, and appreciate it without imagination? There are different modes of reaching mans interior natures. It is ignorance or neglect of the laws of feeling that makes so much trouble with persons in their religious experience. There are many who think that if they are to have true moral feelings they must have them in a particular way; whereas true moral feelings come in an infinite number of ways: One hindrance to the development of moral feeling and to its continuous flow, in so far as continuity of moral feeling is practicable, is found in the law of discord of the force of malign feelings in changing the current and nature of a mans emotions. In the human soul, which is the most exquisite of all orchestras, you may have mirth, reason, wit, and humour, veneration, hope, faith, and they help each other, and are naturally harmonious, and cannot of themselves make discord. But when a man is in that peaceful and joyous state of mind which it is the nature of these combined elements to induce, let one single malign feeling strike in among them, and it will put them out of concord, and strike a line of discord through them. (H. Ward Beecher.)
Transient devotions
The Church hath seldom seen happier days than those described in Exo_19:1-25. God had never diffused His benedictions on a people in a richer abundance. Never had a people gratitude more lively, piety more fervent. But this devotion had one great defect, it lasted only forty days. God had to say, They have quickly turned aside. Some divines regard the text as prophetical. In their opinion the goodness mentioned in the text is the mercy of God displayed in the Gospel. The dew signifies Jesus Christ. The morning dew intends the covenant of grace. We, however, regard a goodness like the morning dew as a seeming piety, which goeth away, is of short duration, and all the words of the text are a reproof from God to His people for the unsteadiness of their devotions.
I. The nature of the piety in question. We are not to understand by it those deceitful appearances of hypocrites who conceal their profane and irreligious hearts under the cover of ardour and religion; or the disposition of those Christians who fall through their own frailty from high degrees of pious zeal, and experience emotions of sin after they have felt exercises of grace. Hypocrisy cannot suspend the strokes of Divine justice one single moment, and it is more likely to inflame than to extinguish the righteous indignation of God. The piety we speak of lies between these two dispositions. It is sincere, but it is unfruitful, and in that respect it is inferior to the piety of the weak and revolting Christian. It is sufficient to discover sin, but not to correct it: sufficient to produce sincere resolutions, but not to keep them: it softens the heart, but it doth not renew it; it excites grief, but it doth not eradicate evil dispositions. It is a piety of times, opportunities, and circumstances.
1. By piety, like the early dew that goeth away, we mean that which is usually excited by public calamities.
2. In the second class of transient devotions we place that which religious solemnities produce.
3. That which is excited by the fear of death, and which vanishes as soon as the fear subsides. The most emphatical, the most urgent, and the most pathetical of all preachers is death.
II. The insufficiency of this kind of devotion.
1. In the text is an argument of sentiment and love. God represents Himself here under the image of a prince who had formed an intimate connection with one of his subjects. And the subject seems deeply sensible of the honour done him, but proves faithless. Equivocal reformations, appearances of esteem, are much more cruel than total ingratitude and open avowed hatred.
2. Consider the injustice of these devotions. Though they are vain, yet people expect God to reward them. Though mens complaints of Gods not rewarding were unjust, yet God sometimes paid attention to them; for though He sees the bottom of mens hearts, and distinguishes real from apparent piety, yet He hath so much love for repentance that He sometimes rewards the bare appearance of it, as in the case of Ahab. The Jews knew this condescension of God, and they insulted it in the most odious manner.
3. There is a manifest contradiction between these two periods of life, between that of our devotion, and that of our sin. A reasonable man acting consistently ought to choose either to have no periods of devotion, or to perpetuate them. There is a palpable danger in having both these dispositions.
4. Every part of devotion supposes some action of life, so that if there be no such action the whole value of devotion ceases.
5. Transient devotions are inconsistent with the general design of religion. This design is to reform man, to renew him, to transform him into the likeness of glorified saints, to render him like God. But how does a rapid torrent of devotion attended with no moral rectitude contribute to this end?
6. Transient devotions must render promises of grace to you doubtful, even suppose you should ever, after a thousand revolutions of transient piety, be in possession of true and real religion.
7. Consider the imprudence of a man who divides his life in this manner into periods of devotion and periods of sin. A heart divided in this manner cannot be happy. And the state of suspension which God assumes in the text cannot last long. (James Saurin.)
The condition of man as a wreck
I. Man is a wreck. The picture which this book gives us of the Jewish people is truly a hideous and lamentable one. Sin roils its warm, sparkling, but poisonous current through the veins of all. Man everywhere is a moral ruin. Physically, intellectually, and morally man is a wreck. He is at war with himself, at war with the universe, at war with God. But God is earnest about man in this condition. He appeals in the most tender and moving strains of love and mercy.
II. Man, though a wreck, is an object of importance. Nothing impresses so much the importance of man as the interest which the great God seems to take in him--the earnestness which He displays for his recovery. A great, mind is never earnest about an unimportant object. Little minds grow enthusiastic about small matters. There is a strange power in suffering to heighten affection. As is seen in homes in times of sickness.
III. Man, though a wreck, is capable of restoration. Three things show this.
1. The condition of man in this world.
2. The deep aspiration of humanity.
3. The extraordinary means that are provided for mans restoration.
IV. Man, though a wreck, exerts a fearful power. Why did all Gods operations fail? On account of mans power, even in his wrecked condition, to resist. Man counteracts the moral influence of nature and the tendency of providence: he even resists the appeals of the Gospel and the strivings of the Spirit. (Homilist.)
Occasional impressions
How little practical influence do the Divine claims possess on the hearts and conduct of men! There are some who, if visited by occasional impression, and if apparently aroused to a sense of their high obligations, yet fall back again to perverted habits as the natural element of life. To such as these Hosea wrote.
I. The nature and exciting circumstances of the disposition alleged. The images employed are emblems of brevity and evanescence. The morning cloud is soon dispersed, and the early dew soon evaporates before the sunbeam. It affirms that the persons indicated had been the subjects of certain emotions towards God and His will, which appeared to be right and good, but which proved transitory and unsubstantial, and soon gave way altogether to returning habits of transgression and rebellion. There may often be the plausible semblance of regeneration without the vivifying reality. Here in the text is a disposition which effects no mental renovation, and takes no established hold--a mere inflamed excitement, subject at once to removal on the rise of new suggestions, expiring with the impulse of the moment, agitating and subsiding, promising and disappointing, springing and withering.
1. This disposition may be excited by remarkable interferences of the providence of God. Public and national providences have given rise, not seldom, to what has thus appeared as the spirit of religion. As in the times of the Israelite Judges. Times of prosperity and calamity have similar results in individuals.
2. By the presence of sickness and imagined approach of death. These are evidently calculated to lead to serious consideration on the interests of the soul. But too often the zeal keeps time with the disease; the recovery of health proves to be the resurrection of sins.
3. By the statements and appeals of Divine truth. Under the preaching of the Word, the emotions of many prove transitory and ineffective.
II. The effects of that disposition on the interests of those who are the subjects of it.
1. It assists to render the mind insensible to religion. The susceptibility is exhausted and deadened, and will no longer answer to what awakened it before. Persons whose impressions have gone away, cherish an absolute hatred of the memory of those impressions, and of the circumstances that inspired them.
2. It exposes to the signal retribution of future punishment. To the accusation of the text are annexed threatenings of tremendous evils as consequent on the crime. The judicial result, arising from the previous transgressions, is at once stated. (James Parsons.)
Emotion in the religious life
No two figures could have been selected, either for delicacy or for beauty, to represent the religious feelings better than these--the beauty of the cloud, its promise and its quick departure; and the beauty of the jewelled morning, that excites admiration everywhere, and the speedy emptying of its beauty. So is it, so it has been, and so it will be with religious feeling that rises easily, that promises everything that is ecstatic and that is fugitive, going as do the clouds and the dew. One of the most important things to know to-day is the genesis of the feelings. The ignorance of men as to the laws and uses of feeling, and as to the means of producing, regulating, and retaining it, is monumental. All action proceeds from emotion, which is a reservoir of forces. Men seem to act from thinking; but thinking is altogether subordinate and auxiliary to feeling. That which makes a man act, that which sets him forward in research, enterprise, effort, is either open or latent emotion. You cannot produce a sound and large religious character, you cannot produce any change in the right direction without feeling. Susceptibility to emotion is, in its largest view, susceptibility to development in any direction. How much emotion does a person want? Enough to bring him into a condition of action. More than that. Enough to make him a little more alert, and to make his work easier. People who want intense emotion are not wise. It is creditable to persons to enter upon high Christian life without having had very deep experiences of feeling or emotion. Another mistake in regard to feeling is the temptation to make it continuous. It is contrary to nature. Persons often reproach themselves for losing their feeling when they ought to lose it. We are not constituted so that we can bear continuous emotion long in a single line. Then there is such a thing as the alternation of feeling. And alternation is desirable, for alternation is rest. Religious feelings exhausted by continued religious considerations are restored by the administration of social and secular things. Often the things which men avoid seriously and urgently are the very things which are necessary for them. The production of feeling is a matter very little understood. Buoyancy is a term by which we mean that kind of general animal emotion which is the result of high life-feeling such as children and all-young animals show. It is a purely bodily quality. It must not be confounded with emotion. Quickness of susceptibility is a sign, not of deep emotion, but of temperament. By temperament several things are meant. Emotion proper results from the action on the feelings of some form of intellectual presentation. That is the general law. Is there any law, any principle, any direction that a man can give or take, by which one can facilitate the production of any feeling that he wants? Deep religious feeling is not a matter of chance; it is a matter of cultivation, as definite as cultivation in a field or garden of plants; and just as definite as cultivation in schools. (H. Ward Beecher.)
Instability of character
No valuable attainment is to be made without industry; and no industry is effectual but that which has the character of perseverance. Yet there is an impression almost universal, that spiritual blessings are to visit us unsolicited by our patient exertion; that, at all events, an occasional sensibility of feeling, and transient purposes of amendment will conduct us to all that is requisite for the life to come. Reflection might teach us the probability of there being an analogy between the requirement made upon us for the earthly, and that which is necessary for the heavenly attainments. Self-examination might show us how very foreign the knowledge of Divine things is to the darkness within our souls; how opposed the practice of what is righteous to the corruption which reigns there. Scripture would affix its authoritative seal on all which reflection and self-inquiry suggest. How unstable was the nation of Israel! What other means could Divine wisdom invent to give to their repentance a fixed, a lasting, an effective character? Mercies and judgments had been tried again and again. God speaks in the text as a man would speak with respect to persons with whom he had used every means of improvement, and used them in vain. The case before us is an exhibition of our own character and danger. It is the prototype of a large class among ourselves. Who have begun, but whose goodness has been like the morning cloud which flees before the approaching sun, or as the early dew soon caught up by his scorching heat. Those who so lately turned from sin to repentance, turn back again from repentance to sin. What are the causes of this short-lived goodness; the causes which lead to the relapse into evil? Great deliverances--blessings from God of an unusual importance--may produce a temporary relaxation of wickedness or worldliness. This effect is also seen to arise from trouble. There are few who have not been led by sorrow and disappointment to make what has proved in the result an abortive struggle. Another frequent cause of temporary heats of religion is discovered in the power of conviction. Appeal to men is continually made b.y the Word of God, by His ministers, by His providence. The only surprise is that such impressions, grounded in truth, should not conduct the soul further; and that there is any point within the line which divides insincerity and sincerity at which it should stop. The solution is found in the state of the heart; there is, in truth, no principle to lead it onward to the true Christian character. The nature of religion has not been considered; its motives have not been weighed; its difficulties have not been calculated. No wonder that animal indulgence, the temptations of the world, and the persuasions and influence of others make it difficult for a pliable mind to act independently. (T. Kennion, M. A.)
The instability of human goodness
Ephraim and Judah were made better neither by promises nor threatenings, so that their case was very hopeless, and nothing seemed to remain but that the Lord should leave them. In the text we have that which made their case so hopeless. They had at times some goodness--Hebrew, kindness. They had at times some kindness for God and His way, some warmth of affections towards good. It was but sometimes. Their goodness was passing goodness. This instability is held forth by the similitude--
1. Of a morning cloud;
2. Of the early dew.
Such is the instability of many in the good way of the Lord, that the goodness at which they sometimes arrive passeth away as a morning cloud and as the early dew.
I. In what respects does this likeness hold good? The goodness of the saints cannot pass away totally or finally. But even the saints may lose much of the degrees of grace.
1. Mens goodness often goes away very quickly as the morning cloud which appears only a very short while. Goodness of fellowship with Christ often fades quickly away. Goodness often passes quickly away after deliverance from trouble.
2. Mens goodness ordinarily goes away by degrees, almost imperceptibly. Carnal security creeps leisurely on men, until by it they are taken off their feet. When temptation comes, mans goodness is often amissing. Much goodness passes away in a time of persecution for the Gospel. And much when we are called to duty.
II. Reasons why the goodness of many thus passes away.
1. Many, for all their goodness, have not the living Spirit of Christ dwelling in them.
2. Because the souls of many do not unite with Christ, who is the only head of influence.
3. Because, with many, religion is not their proper element. It is a forced matter with them that they have any at all. Self-love is their highest principle. They have no real love to the Lord, nor does the intrinsic beauty of holiness recommend it to them.
4. Because they have no spirit for difficulties and disappointments. They go forward cheerfully while things are laid to their hand; but disappointments take heart and hand from them, and they are knocked in the head.
5. Because of the entertaining of unmortified lusts, which, like suckers, draw the sap from the tree.
6. Because the profits and pleasures of the world soon charm away mens goodness.
7. Because of unwatchfulness over the heart and life. I would exhort you, then, that have attained to anything of goodness or kindness to the Lord in His way, that you would set yourselves to hold it fast. (T. Boston, D. D.)
The impressions of natural men are lading
In these words God complains that He did not know what to do with Israel, their impressions were so fading.
I. The fact that the impressions of natural men fade away.
1. Prove the fact from Scripture. Take the case of Lots wife. Or Israel at the Red Sea. Or the young man who came running to Jesus. Or Felix. Or King Agrippa.
2. Prove the fact from experience.
(1) Many have had a time of awakening in childhood.
(2) Or at their first communion.
(3) Or in a first time of serious sickness.
(4) Or when there has come a first death in the family.
(5) Or in some season of religious awakening.
3. Show the steps of impressions fading away.
(1) Prayer gradually given up.
(2) Hearing the Word neglected,.
(3) Failing to seek counsel and help of ministers.
II. Reasons why the natural impressions of men die away.
1. They never are brought to feel truly lost. The wounds of natural men are generally skin deep. They may be brought to say, I am a great sinner; but they are not brought to feel undone.
2. They never saw the beauty of Christ. A flash of terror will bring a man to his knees, but will not bring him to Christ. Love only will draw. A natural man, under concern, sees no beauty nor desirableness in Christ.
3. He never had heart-hatred of sin. The impressions of natural men are generally of terror. They feel the danger of sin, not the filthiness of it.
4. They have no promises to keep their impressions. Natural men have no interest in the promises, and so, in the time of temptation, their anxieties easily wear away.
III. The sadness of their case.
1. God mourns over their case. It must be a truly sad case that God mourns over.
2. God has no new method of awakening. He speaks as even at a loss what to do, to show you that there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins.
3. No good by your past impressions. When the cloud is dried up off the mountains brow, and the dew off the rock, the mountain is as great as before, and the rock as hard; but when convictions fade away from the heart of the natural man, they leave the mountain of his sins much greater, and his rocky heart much harder. It is less likely that such a man will ever be saved.
Application.
1. You are now older, and every day less likely to be saved.
2. You have offended the Spirit. You have missed your opportunity. Convictions are not in your power.
3. You have got into the way of putting aside convictions.
4. When you come to hell you will wish you never had convictions, they will make your punishment so much the greater.
Entreat all who now have any impressions not to let them slip. It is a great mercy to live under a Gospel ministry; still greater to live in a time of revival; still greater to have God pouring the Spirit into your heart, awakening your soul. Do not neglect it. (R. M. MCheyne.)
Transient impressions
How is the too common disappearance of hopeful impressions to be accounted for? The great reason no doubt is that the heart has never been truly reached. But that is itself an effect produced by other causes which need to be sought after. The causes which tend to make religious impressions evanescent may be classified under three heads.
I. Those which are speculative in their nature.. When the conscience is awakened the soul takes refuge in perplexing difficulties, which revelation leaves unsolved. But such difficulties should never be allowed to keep us from religious decision.
1. The existence of difficulties is inseparable from any revelation which is short of infinite. All perplexities arise from imperfect knowledge.
2. The difficulties in revelation are of the same sort, so far at least as they touch conduct, as those which we meet in Gods daily providence.
3. Difficulties in regard to things of which we are in doubt ought not to prevent us from performing duties that are perfectly plain. Whatever a man may be perplexed about, he knows full well that it is wrong to commit sin. Some however find perplexities of another kind. They are bewildered by the questions raised by modem discoveries. It is important for such persons to keep this principle in mind--truth already ascertained on its own appropriate evidence is not the less true because there are added to it some important truths in another department of human inquiry. We welcome truth from all quarters, for truth is near of kin to Him who sits upon the eternal throne.
II. Those causes which are practical.
1. Some are hindered from yielding to the promptings of their better nature by fear of opposition.
2. Others by the influence of evil associations.
3. Another hindrance is the fettering influence of some pernicious habit.
III. Causes connected with the conduct of professing Christians. The seriousness produced by some searching dis course is often wiped out by the thoughtless, flippant remarks of a so-called Christian on the way home from Church. Or it may be that in time of trouble professing Christians prove indifferent and neglectful. But the inconsistency of others cannot excuse us. And, moreover, we know well that all Christians are not like those we have to condemn. Remember the consistent ones, and do not dwell exclusively on the inconsistent, (W. M. Taylor, D. D.)
Goodness like a morning cloud
I. Portray the character indicated.
1. Unfruitful hearers. Such feel a pleasure in attending the ministry of the Word; the passions are affected, the understanding is enlightened, and they form purposes for amendment of life, but the impression is momentary; there is no decision of character.
2. Transient reformers. Those who under providential visitations have determined to amend their ways and live to God, but afterwards have relapsed into sin.
3. Inconstant professors. Such go farther than the former: for a season they make a public profession of religion, and attend regularly the ordinances of Gods house; but through unwatchfulness and a neglect of Christian exercises their piety degenerates, their affections become cold, and at last they abandon religion altogether.
II. Their sin and danger.
1. Unwatchfulness. They were cautioned, warned, and admonished; but instead of guarding the avenues of the soul, they were heedless and trifling.
2. Unfaithfulness. Had they walked in the light, their path would have been that of the just (Pro_4:18).
3. Ingratitude. They have had signal displays of the Divine beneficence. The returns they make are blasphemy instead of praises; pride, instead of humility; sin, instead of holiness; hatred, instead of love.
4. Rebellion. God has been striving with them in a variety of ways. Yet their lives have been marked with instability and indecision. Such has been their sin and such the mercy of God. But the day of vengeance is at hand. And their state is awful beyond description. (Sketches of Four Hundred Sermons.)
Evanescence of the early dew
By the word of the prophet Hosea, the Divine reproach fell on Ephraim and on Judah, that their goodness was as a morning cloud, and that us the early dew it passed away. Bright was the promise of the innocent dawn, but the promise was unfulfilled. Mr. Kingsley, in a touching reflection--literally reflection, looking back on the long lost might-have-been, adverts to that personal idea which every soul brings with it into the world, which shines dim and potential in the face of every sleeping babe, before it has been scarred, and distorted, and entrusted in the long tragedy of life. Dr. Caird has said of the birthday of the worst of men, that although it ushered a new agent of evil into existence, and was a day fraught with more disasters to the world than the day in which the pestilence began to creep over the nations, or the blight to fasten on the food of man, or any other physical evil to enter on a career of world-wide devastation, yet might this day, when the vilest of humanity first saw the light, be in some aspects of it regarded as better (despite Solomons text) than the day of his death. For, to take only one view of it, when life commenced, the problem of good or evil, to which death has brought so terrible a solution, was, in his case, as yet unsolved. The page of human history which he was to write was as yet unwritten, and to that day belonged, at all events, the advantage of the uncertainty whether it was to be blurred and blotted, or written fair and clean. Life, even in the most unfavourable circumstances, it is urged, has ever some faint gleams of hope to brighten its outset. The preacher owns that the simplicity, the tenderness, the unconscious refinement that more or less characterise infancy, even among the lowest and rudest, soon indeed pass away, and give place to the coarseness of an unideal, if not the animal repulsiveness of a sensual or sinful life. But he insists that at least at the beginning, for a little while, there is something in the seeming innocency, the brightness, the unworldliness, the unworn freshness of childhood, that gives hope room to work. Is there not, he asks, for every child, not in the dreams of parental fondness only, but in reality, and in Gods idea, the possibility of a noble future? The history of each new born soul is surely in Gods plan and intention a bright and blessed one. For the vilest miscreant that was ever hounded out of life in dishonour and wretched ness, there was, in the mind of the All-good, a Divine ideal, a glorious possibility of excellence, which might have been made a reality. The most hardened ruffian, the most obdurate criminal, the most impenetrable reprobate was once a child. Most of what he has, the grown-up man is shewn to inherit from his infant self, but it does not follow that he always enters upon the whole of his natural inheritance. (Francis Jacox, B. A.)
Religious declension
Since in every age of the Church the prophets description of Ephraim finds but too faithful a resemblance, we must appropriate and apply to ourselves this affecting language. The case before us is that of instability in religion. The prophets lamentation does not regard those who have fallen into known, deliberate, and grievous sin. The case before us does not regard those whose ardour of feeling is less strong than it may once have been. Feeling is no test of principle. Feelings and emotions, though they will ofttimes accompany a religious state of heart, yet are not necessarily attendant on it; they are often the effects of mere animal spirits. The prophet deals with the inconstancy and decline of those who have professed to know God, but whose acquaintance with Him has not grown, but decayed.
I. The character here described.
1. Those who have had strong convictions. Their consciences have been visited by the force of the most solemn and awakening appeals of Gods Word. The arrows of the Almighty have been lodged, possibly very deeply, in the heart.
2. These have been accompanied by feelings, strong correspondent feelings. The representations of Gods free and tender mercy in Christ Jesus have melted the soul into a love toward the Saviour, and the heart has prostrated itself at His footstool.
3. And these feelings have been followed by plans for the honour of God.
4. And this leads him to make great sacrifices. Such are some of the fair appearances, the goodly blossoms, which, in the outset of life, or after the first awakenings of the soul, appear in the characters of those who yet, alas! bring forth no fruit to perfection. By and by, the power, the life, the unction is gone; there has been a worm at the root, eating out the spirit and the energy of the profession.
II. Some of the causes of this declension.
1. Excessive ignorance of the heart. He knows not of the ten thousand specious forms of apology which his heart is devising, and no wonder that he is not prepared with a resistance.
2. Negligence in devotion. Wherever prayer is disused, or coldly performed, there are the infallible symptoms of decaying piety.
3. Unheeded afflictions. By trials and afflictions that check our complacent prosperity, God calls to some one whose early promise of excellence has disappointed the hopes of heaven. He seemed, whilst the pressure of Gods hand was still felt, to have learned the things which belonged to his peace; but the immediate force being lifted off, and the prospect of speedily meeting God having vanished, he starts back; the things of sense again dazzle his eyes, stupefy his conscience, and carry him away captive.
4. Seductive worldly connection. Such alliances hang like a clog on the soul, and drag heavily upon that wing on which it might otherwise mount upwards with renewed strength towards the centre of blessedness.
III. What is Gods estimate of the case? It is a case which draws forth His severe anger. But the language of the passage rather presents God as grieved at the case, than in wrath. The appeal contains sharp rebuke and tender love. It says, thy case carries reproach to thyself, and draws compassion from My heart. What means this backward movement, when thou shouldst have moved forward? (Robert Eden, M. A.)
Fading impressions
A celebrated preacher of the seventeenth century, in a sermon to a crowded audience, described the terrors of the last, judgment with such eloquence, pathos, and force of action, that some of his audience not only burst into tears, but sent forth piercing cries as if the Judge Himself had been present, and was about to pass on them their final sentence. In the height of this excitement, the preacher called upon them to dry their tears, and cease their cries, as he was about to add something still more awful and astonishing than anything he had yet brought before them. Silence being obtained, he, with an agitated countenance and solemn voice, addressed them thus: In one quarter of an hour from this time, the emotions which you have just now exhibited will be stifled; the remembrance of the fearful truths which excited them will vanish; you will return to your carnal occupations, or sinful pleasures, with your usual avidity, and you will treat all you have heard as a tale that is told.
Trifling with impressions
This is one of those passages of Scripture in which God seems to represent Himself as actually at a loss, not knowing what else could be done to produce piety in hearts which had heretofore resisted the strivings of the Spirit. Yet, if you observe what these particular circumstances were which thus seemed to bring even Omnipotence to a stand, you will not find them such as might at first sight have been expected to produce such a result. God does not accuse Ephraim and Judah of being entirely unmoved by all the means which He had ever taken to move them. An impression had been made, but it had not been permanent. It is because the impression proved only transient that God represents Himself as at a loss--His resources exhausted, His purposes frustrated; for your goodness is as the morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away. There were some indications of goodness; some convictions of sin, some impressions of past guilt were produced. Resolutions of amendment were made, and partially carried into practice, but at the first impulse of temptation all these appearances vanished, just as the cloud disperses and the dew exhales before the sun shining in his strength. There can hardly be a less hopeful condition than that of a man on whom a weak impression has been made, but on whom it has not been abiding.
I. The case described. The style of the preaching to which men are accustomed to listen will determine, in a great degree, the peculiar moral danger to which they are exposed. Cold preaching is likely to leave men in their natural torpor, and fervid preaching is likely to communicate a warmth which may be mistaken for the glow of spiritual life, but which, proceeding only from excited sensibilities, and not from a renewed heart, will immediately depart when the stimulating causes are withdrawn. You have only to follow one of the multitude who has been thus excitedly impressed, and you will find that no steps are taken to deepen the impressions. The influences of seasons of affliction are much the same. It is melancholy and disheartening to observe how rapidly those promising appearances vanish. Men so often virtually mistake the action of grief for the action of conscience. This is the case conceived in the text.
II. Why should such a case produce the startling words of the text? If religious impressions have been produced and then erased, the heart must be even harder than it was. Augustine says, The facility with which we commit certain sins is a punishment for sins already committed. It is the property of our nature that the doing of a thing makes it easier to do it again. This property of our nature should teach us that in obliterating serious impressions we make it more difficult than ever that they should be reformed. Then comes the question, if we have offered successful resistance to the Spirit of God, will the strivings of the Spirit be more intense than before? It is on this very point that God represents Himself as putting the question of the text to Ephraim and Judah. Observe in these words of the text a peculiarity which is very touching and affecting. God addresses Himself to the very parties themselves whose goodness has vanished as the morning cloud or early dew. He proposes what we may call His difficulty, in the shape of questions, as though willing to be directed by those with whom He had striven in vain. He makes them, as it were, judges in the matter. What have you to answer to God! You, it seems, are found speechless. We will not say that your ease is beyond hope, but we will derive a warning from the manifested peril in which you stand. Take good heed how you trifle with your convictions. Your eternity may be dependent on your present steadfastness. If you crush your present feelings, there is a fearful likelihood of your passing from one degree of moral hardness to another, until God Himself shall not know what to do for your conversion. (Henry Melvill, B. D.)
A threefold theme
I. Divine solicitude. The language implies--
1. I have done much for thee.
2. I am ready to do more.
3. I am fettered in My actions.
Almightiness has restrictions. It is Gods glory that He will not outrage moral minds.
II. Human perversity. Men set their wills in hostility to Gods. Hence He says, What shall I do unto thee? I can reverse the laws of nature, I can break up old universes and create new ones, but I cannot make beings whom I have endowed with the power of freedom, virtuous and happy, contrary to their own will.
III. Evanescent goodness. Whether the goodness refers exclusively to human kindness, or includes some amount of pious sentiment it matters not; it was so evanescent that it was of no worth. Goodness is of no worth to any being until it becomes supreme and permanent. Thank God for endowing thee with freedom; it is a fearful power. It gives to men a widely different destiny even here, but a destiny in eternity infinitely more dissimilar. (Homilist.)
Mans goodness
Either--
1. Gods goodness towards them, or
2. Their goodness, that is, their piety and holiness.
Gods goodness to them was as the morning cloud, for they, by their sin, had driven away Gods mercy and goodness from them, even as the wind carries the dust before it. In these words God charges this people with three things whereby their hypocrisy was expressed.
(1) Their vacuity and emptiness.
(2) Their falseness and dissembling.
(3) Their inconstancy and fickleness. (Jeremiah Burroughs.)
On transient impressions
Notwithstanding the paralysing effects of sin upon the conscience, there are few persons, perhaps, living under the light of inspiration, who have not, at one time or another, felt the claims of heaven press upon them, and tasted, in some degree, the powers of the world to come.
I. Impressions bearing the semblance of religion, and producing effects which are mistaken for its genuine fruits, are generally, though by no means uniformly, attributable to external causes.
1. The influence of education, and the force of habit often induce seriousness of mind, and generate a deportment which seems to harmonise with the principles of the Gospel. The collateral results of consistent piety are very many, and often they are very powerful. But they sometimes end in disappointment. Under the strain and temptation of life, the young man from a pious home fails and falls, the shadow of religion vanishes into aerial nothingness.
2. Impressions of a similarly transient nature are often produced by affliction in its varied forms. Such impressions are often, indeed, solid and permanent. But some persons under affliction resolve on the godly life, and then as the affliction passes so does the resolve. God removes affliction from the mans dwelling, and soon he himself banishes religion likewise; telling her, in effect, that though she may be a good companion in adversity, she is a gloomy guest in prosperity.
3. The faithful preaching of the Gospel, in very many instances, generates impressions which ultimately prove evanescent. The anxious pastor beholds with grateful joy these supposed fruits of his labours; but how deceitful these sometimes prove. The flower is nipped by the cruel blast, and forthwith it droops and fades away.
II. Transient goodness is an essentially different thing from vital religion, The two may be more than externally assimilated to each other. The resemblance may, indeed, elude detection. The impressions we are now considering are essentially defective in reference to the two great points of sin and salvation. The professions of sin are not drawn from the hidden depths of self-knowledge; they do not grow out of that moral feeling which is generated by an insight into the holiness of God; they are not the genuine distinctive cry of the broken and contrite heart. They respect danger rather than degradation. There may be correct views of Gospel theory, they do not arise from, or connect themselves with a moral apprehension of the suitableness of the remedy to the nature of the disease. The goodness which is as the morning cloud wants spirituality of perception, in regard to the salvation of Christ; and it wants that pure complacency which cements the union of believers with their Lord. Lessons.
1. The importance of ascertaining the true basis on which our religion rests. In voluntary self-deception there is an equal mixture of sin and folly.
2. What an awful thing it is to sin against conscience. Backsliding and apostasy are different things. But no person who is actually sinning against the remonstrances of conscience can have scriptural evidence that he has been in a state of grace at all: he may rather draw the conclusion that he has not.
3. Consider the forbearance and tender compassion of Almighty God towards those who have basely treated and grievously offended Him. God never gives up a sinner who is unwilling to give up himself. (W. Knight, M. A.)
Goodness that will not last
Of this their goodness, the prophet says, the character was that it never lasted. The morning cloud is full of brilliancy with the rays of the rising sun, yet quickly disappears through the heat of that sun which gave it its rich hues. The morning dew glitters in the same sun, yet vanishes almost as soon as it appears. Generated with the cold of the night, it appears with the dawn; yet appears only to disappear. So it was with the whole Jewish people; so it ever is with the most hopeless class of sinners; ever beginning anew; ever relapsing; ever making a show of leaves, good feelings, good aspirations, but yielding no fruit. There was nothing of sound, sincere, lasting, real goodness in them; no reality, but all show, quickly assumed, quickly disused. (E.B. Pusey, D. D.)
A Divine expostulation
The compassion of God towards His fallen creature man is manifest in every part of the Divine procedure. Amidst our numerous provocations and offences the Lord is continually bearing and forbearing with us. The prophet Hosea points out the tenderness and care of Divine goodness towards the fallen race of men.
I. The nature of the expostulation recorded in the text. Nothing can more effectually stimulate us to obedience than the powerful impulse of gratitude. Whether we contemplate the works of nature, providence, or grace, we find in each a brilliant display of the goodness of God. Our salvation from beginning to end is wholly of grace, and therefore we are bound by the strongest motives of gratitude to glorify God by a holy life and conversation. But what is the report which either experience or observation must make of our daily conduct? If we calmly look back on our past lives, if we enter into a self-examination of our coldness and deadness in religion, of the little fruit we produce, we cannot wonder at the affecting and interesting expostulation contained in the text. What astonishing condescension is it that God should thus graciously reason with His creatures. God charges both Judah and Ephraim with wavering irresolution and manifest inconsistencies in their profession of religion. The charge is that they did not act up to their convictions. And how justly this may be applied to the whole of our conduct through life! The expostulation implies that God willeth not the death of the sinner, if we would renounce our evil courses, and turn with full purpose of heart unto Him, though He visit us occasionally with afflictions, and temporary losses, and various disappointments, yet He only chastens us for our good. The expostulation plainly suggests that all our ways are noticed by Him who is constantly about our path. God takes various methods to bring sinners to repentance.
II. What are we to understand by the charge brought against Ephraim and Judah? The morning cloud promiseth rain, and the early dew is some refreshment to the parched earth, but the cloud is soon dispersed, and the dew does not sink deep into the ground. It does not extend to the root of the tree, and this is a fit emblem of the superficial religion which designates the character of numbers. The charge of being wavering and unstable too properly belongs to us. We profess to be followers of Christ, and yet how few of us imbibe His Spirit, or imitate His example! Our goodness or piety, which ought to be uniformly alike, is like the morning cloud or the early dew. It shines bright and conspicuous for a season; but when temptations or persecutions arise, we have no stability, no depth of root, and therefore, like the stony ground hearers, are scorched up, wither, and fade away. Unless there be a fixed principle implanted by the Spirit of God in the heart, governing the choice, and directing the affections, there will be no steady or abiding influence on the conduct. When men promise fair, and do not perform, when they begin well in religion, and do not hold on to the end, but fall off from a good profession,-the latter state of those men is even worse than the first. Though men do not quite cast off religion, yet if they are unsteady, uneven, and inconstant in it, they are like the morning cloud and early dew. The dispositions of the mind need to be changed by regenerating grace.
III. The manner in which we should improve these admonitions, by a serious inquiry into our own character and conduct. Let every man pay attention to the workings of his own mind, to the habits of his daily life, and more especially to his favourite pursuits. In this way he will read the progress or decline of religion in his own soul. Let him also pray with fervour or the constant aids of the Holy Spirit, to fan the flame of piety, to cherish holy dispositions, and to keep him securely to the end. And as these aids are promised to all who ask them, how can we have the benefit unless we apply for it? Let Christ and His atoning blood be precious in our eyes. (J. Grose, A. M.)
Goodness as kindness
Some take the words to mean, Your kindness, that is, the mercy which I have hitherto exhibited to you is as the morning dew ye immediately dry up My favour. This seems not unsuitable, for we see that the unbelieving by their wickedness absorb the mercy of God, so that it produces no good, as when rain flows over a rock or a stone, while the stone within, on account of its hardness, remains dry. As then the moisture of rain does not penetrate into stones, so also the grace of God is spent in vain and without advantage on the unbelieving. (John Calvin.)
Transient convictions and true consecration
I. Two kinds of religion. The transient and the truthful. Why do so many who seem to be sincere and earnest endure but for awhile? Worldliness, like the sun, dries up, and temptation, like the wind, scatters and dissolves what looked so beautiful. Truthful persons are sincere, there is a reality in their religion, something that abides. We may also call such a religion truthful as wrought in the soul by the Spirit of truth, by the Spirit, through the truth.
II. Some people have only known one of these kinds of religion, and some have known both. Some have only known the transient. Hitherto it has been conviction without conversion; resolutions without love; deficient repentance and sorrow without real surrender. Truth has not conquered; no governing principle has been introduced into the soul; nothing permanently inscribed on the tablets of the heart. Some have only known the truthful. A few have been drawn gently and even from early life. Others have gone on in darkness several years, and have then been suddenly brought to a stand, and at once translated into the kingdom of Gods dear Son. A third class have known both. In their case there were many attempts and failures. Many settings out and goings back. Yet even such unlikely ones have been saved. Therefore let none despair.
III. What must be done in order really to pass from the one to the other? If you would not have your feelings pass away, you yourself must pass in, you must yield yourself to God. Go in through the door, have really and personally to do with Christ, then religion will become to you an abiding reality. The reason why your religion is a transient one is that you have not yet begun aright. True godliness begins with the pardon of sins. God is willing to begin with the blotting out of sin. (J. Cox.)
Fickleness in religion
Fickleness cannot but be attended by fatal consequences. It has proved fatal to real progress and lasting prosperity. The Celts shook all empires but founded none. Caesar tells us that the same fault characterised the Gauls, and St. Paul bears witness to the same failing in his Epistle to the Galatians. It was the recurring sin of the children of Israel Gods gracious invitations to His people show how great and faithful was His love. But it seems at times as if Divine love itself were perplexed. O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee, etc. Silently, imperceptibly, like the evanescent cloud, and like the sparkling dewdrop, their goodness and love passed away.
I. This is a common fault to-day. How many begin hopefully and then fall away. One of the saddest sights angels behold is a warm heart cooling in its love towards God, a beautiful life withering neath the blight of sin. It is most instructive to notice the cause of the downfall of Jewish kings. Many of them began well, but were not thorough, did not continue faithful, but substituted inferior things. And King Ahaz took down the sea from off the brazen oxen, and put it upon a pavement of stones. Many begin by giving their best to God, but alas! they give up their early enthusiasm and become less zealous in His service.
II. Before entering upon Gods service count the cost. Lord Wolseley mapped out the whole campaign before entering upon the Egyptian war. Britains unpreparedness was the cause of many reverses in the great South African war. Jesus Christ is very explicit on this point. Sit down, and count the cost. There is the bias of the heart towards sin. When I would do good, evil is present with me. A fact that makes degeneration easy. Goodness requires effort. Gird up the loins of your mind. Temptations and cares beset the upward path. Longfellows Excelsior.
III. How to continue faithful. Prayer is the arm of the soul that connects it with God, like the tram-car with the overhead wire. It brings down light and power. Study well the chart. Read the Bible. Have fellowship with Christs people. The early Hebrew Christians had many temptations and trials, hence they were enjoined not to forsake the assembling of themselves together. Keep in touch with God and with His people. (A. Hampden Lee.)
Fugitive piety
I. The piety characterised by the text. Very beautiful and full of promise, but disappointing. It was thus with the Israelites in the wilderness (Psa_78:34-38). And there is much of the same piety now. Some spend their lives in sinning and repenting. In the Polar world at a certain season of the year the sun rises just above the horizon, streaks the black sky with fire, casts on the desolate scene a warm splendour, and then in a few minutes sinks again, leaving the sky as dark and the earth as cold as they were before. And thus it is with some amongst us in respect to their experience of religion. Men receive some great mercy, suffer sonic great tribulation, are powerfully affected by the truth, deeply wrought upon by the Divine Spirit, and it seems as if they would forthwith lead a new life, but in a little while they are as worldly or as wicked as they were before. What is done on Sunday is undone on Monday; the vow of the sick chamber is forgotten in convalescence; the promise of the sanctuary withers in the market-place.
II. The defectiveness of such piety.
1. The shameful inconsistency of it. Vacillating men are held in contempt, but all other vacillations are trifling compared with this religious instability. How suddenly, how frequently, how flippantly some of us pass from the highest to the lowest. Now God, now idols; now the spirit, now the flesh; now holiness, now frivolity and sin.
2. The profound misery of it. Such people know the sorrows of religion without its joy. They know little more of the path to heaven than the struggles of the Strait Gate or the woes of the Slough of Despond. Before they get to Palace Beautiful, or the Hill Beulah, they turn back again, the bitterness of religion having gone to their heart, and its sweetness only to their lips.
3. The utter insufficiency of it. Some men look upon their fits of goodness with some satisfaction, but really there is no reason to do so. A transient piety leaves out the foremost grandeur of religion--its unchangeableness. Recognise Gods great love to you. Follow on to know the Lord. He that endureth to the end shall be saved. (W. L. Watkinson.)
Fitful piety unsatisfactory
We need to feel the utter unsatisfactoriness of this fitful piety, Too often we look with complacency upon it. We argue thus: I am not altogether bad; I have my times of good feeling, desire, and effort; the barren wilderness of my heart is relieved by green, blossoming shoots; the winter of my life has its snowdrops and violets, telling of the neighbourhood of golden seasons; I am comforted when I remember the recurrence of these days of gracious sentiment and aspiration Such reasoning is entirely erroneous; there is no justification whatever -for intermittent goodness. Its sufficient condemnation is its unlikeness to Gods goodness. Hosea points out the contrast. Our goodness is the morning cloud, whilst the goodness of God is prepared as the morning which brightens to the perfect noon; our goodness is as the early dew, whilst the goodness of God is as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth, it drops fatness the year round. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness; Thy truth endureth for ever; His faithfulness faileth not. This is the crowning glory of God,--He abides from everlasting to everlasting in righteousness and love. The starry, steadfast firmament is supremely grand, but a meteor flash which startles the night counts little; the flowing river has a charm all its own, but the summer brook which dries whilst we look at it is only a disappointing fancy; the stately cedar sheltering successive generations appeals to the soul, but the gourd that springs in a night and perishes in one touches no deep chord. Righteousness in its essential nature is eternal, and therefore the righteousness of time and change is deeply perplexing and sad. (W. L. Watkinson.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain Hos_6:4.] Begins a bitter complaint. What] Both in mercy…
CRITICAL NOTES.—
Hos_6:4.] Begins a bitter complaint. What] Both in mercy and judgment (Isa_5:4). God was constant and kind, Isa. inconstant. Goodness] Godliness, Heb. mercy, kindness, all virtues towards God and man; love which fulfils the law (Rom_13:10). Morning cloud] Evanescent and uncertain. Dew] Generated by the cold of the night, it appears with the dawn; yet appears only to disappear. The Jewish people a type of many amending and relapsing. God’s mercy is first set forth, and then men are upbraided for neglecting it, committing those sins which will be their ruin. Israel’s piety was “quickly assumed and quickly disused.”
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Hos_6:5. Hewed] Cut off, cut down like a tree (Isa_10:15); or to hew out a stone into the right shape. Israel was obdurate, and was hewed by the prophet, and hammered with the word (Jer_23:29). Slain] The word has power to kill and to make alive (Isa_11:4; Isa_49:2). “The stone which will not take the form which should have been imparted to it, is destroyed by the strokes which should have moulded it” [Pusey]. Thy judgments] Lit. that thy judgments might be as the light. Penal justice is conspicuous, clear as the sun; every one should take heed (Zep_3:5); lightening (Hender. trans.; cf. marg. Job_37:3; Job_37:15).
HOMILETICS
JUSTICE OR MERCY?—Hos_6:4-5
These words express intense love, parental discipline, and reluctance to punish any more. God hesitates, seems perplexed, and condescends to ask the sinner himself, to specify a mode of treatment which will answer the purpose. “What shall I do?” When justice was about to punish it was prevented by repentance. When mercy was about to bless it was hindered by fickleness and relapse. God’s kindness was constant, but their goodness was evanescent as the dew. “What could have been done more to my vineyard that I have not done in it?” Nothing more to bring Israel to himself could he have done, therefore nothing remains but to adopt the treatment mentioned. God knows best what will answer the end in view.
I. Justice and Mercy had failed. Warnings had been given and judgments had fallen heavily upon the nation, but that did not answer. Mercy had shone forth in all its splendour, like the noon-day sun, but that prevailed not. Gentle means did not win them. The greater his favours, the more they forgot him and sacrificed to other gods. Then vengeance came, and they were torn by the enemy and carried into captivity. This is a picture of many whom God has blessed with mercy upon mercy. Long health, continued prosperity, and all the world calls good, have been poured out upon them. Their cup has run over. But they have forsaken God and abused his mercies. Now he is changing his ways with them. Health has decayed, business has failed, children have been taken in youth and hope, and all is black and threatening. “His wrath lieth hard upon me, I cannot look up.” But do not envy, and misconstrue this chastisement. There is goodness and loving-kindness in this treatment. It is designed to draw you to God and wean you from sin. “It lightens the stroke,” said an afflicted Christian, “to draw near to him who handles the rod.”
II. Mercy was withheld. Their goodness was like the morning cloud and early dew; which promised only to disappoint. Mercy was withheld, from their false and hypocritical conduct.
1. They were vain in their pretences. Professing to worship God and offer sacrifices, when their hearts were far from him. Their religion was outward show and formality, empty sound and waterless as a cloud. Like the morning cloud, full of colour, yet driven away by the heat of day. Except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, in origin, principle, and aim, you “shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.”
2. They were fickle in their principles. Sound principles are a necessity in life. Without principles a man is like a cloud driven by every gust of wind; like a ship without rudder or compass, drifted hither and thither by every tide. There can be no rule, order, or government without true principle. “Moral principles,” says Hume, “are social and universal. They form, in a manner, the part of humankind against vice and disorder, its common enemy.” But the goodness of some is like the “early dew,” sparkling as diamonds for a while, but not to last. Reverence and religion disappear in extremes; we have the form, but not the power of godliness.
3. They were unstable in their conduct. Repenting and relapsing; smitten and returning; resolving and forgetting; ever beginning and never finishing. There was a fair show of leaves, but not any fruit. Most men are good for a time. In visitation from God, at the prayer-meeting or in the class, they are under deep impressions; but these wear away, and the last condition of these men is worse than the first. There must be no sham, but reality. Principle must be powerful and supreme. Goodness must endure under the burning heat of the sun. It is the incorruptible seed which liveth and abideth for ever.
III. Justice is the only alternative. “Therefore have I hewed them,” &c. Kings and rulers, prophets and priests, past misery and present mercy, seemed not to influence them. What more shall I do? Iniquities had not exhausted, but only limited God’s love. “How often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens,” &c. There remains nothing but further chastisement in their desperate condition, a just retribution in kind. “Therefore they shall be as the morning cloud, and as the early dew that passeth away” (ch. Hos_13:3).
1. The word which might have saved shall punish them. (a) God would “hew” them by the prophets. God’s work is identified with that of his servants. The word is the instrument for the accomplishment of his will. The word disturbs in sin and produces conviction; it reproves and corrects, and “like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces,” (b) God “slays” them by the words of his mouth. Denunciations of wrath had disquieted them and broken their spirits. The word had been “quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword,” to slay their hopes and joys. Men will either be better or worse, quickened or slain, under the preaching of the gospel. “To the one we are a savour of death unto death, and to the other the savour of life unto life.”
2. The judgments which they unheeded shall consume them. “And thy judgments are as the light that goeth forth.” They might have been delightful as the morning, but they shall be terrible as lightning. (a) Clear and visible; palpable to the senses, and a warning to those who see them. They will break out like day-light upon all men. (b) Just and equitable. What they deserved, and what they should not murmur at. They despised the mercy, and now they must behold the severity of God. (c) Terrible and severe; sudden and overpowering as lightning. Christ comes the first time to save, the second to judge and destroy. Duty is clear. The sinner is without excuse. God at last will be a consuming fire.
HOMILETIC HINTS AND OUTLINES
Hos_6:4. Morning cloud. Evanescent goodness, generated by the chill of affliction, full of promise, but vanishes away. Many in childhood affectionate and beautiful, do not always realize what they promise. Men in sickness and bereavement vow what they do not perform. The evening does not accord with “the morning of life.” Dawn does not ripen into day.
Hos_6:5. “Hewed them.” Moral statuary. What sculpture is to a block of marble education is to the mind and religion to the character and life. The word presents us with—I. An insight into human nature. Rough and deformed. Hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. II. An expression of God’s design. God, the Great Sculptor, seeks to correct, cut into shape and symmetry. To bring “an angel out of the stone,” make “corner stones, polished after the similitude of a palace,” to prepare “lively stones” for his great spiritual temple (1Pe_2:5; Eph_2:21). III. A description of the word. A hammer wielded by a Divine hand, authoritative and efficient in breaking the rock, the hardest heart, to pieces. Hence (a) energetic in its nature, (b) varied in its effects, to slay men or make them alive. IV. A suggestion concerning the ministry. Ministers have not to soothe men in sin, nor fear to wound the conscience. As hewers of wood and stone-masons, they have to cut and hammer men. They meet with rough stones and obdurate hearts which must be humbled and hammered. Luther said that faithful ministers labour and sweat more in a day than husbandmen do in a month. With hard blows and sharp instruments have they to work, for men neither receive the image nor submit to the will of God.
Judgments as the light.
1. Revealing sin and exposing the works of darkness (Eph_5:13).
2. Warning men in duty and danger, ignorance and sin.
3. Destroying rebels, on whom they burst with sudden terror. “In this life also God’s final judgments are as a light which goeth forth, enlightening not the sinner who perishes, but others heretofore in the darkness of ignorance, on whom they burst with a sudden blaze of light, and who reverence them, owning that the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether” [Pusey].
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 6
Hos_6:4. Transitoriness. When Daguerre was working at his sun-pictures, his great difficulty was to fix them. The light came and imprinted the image; but when the tablet was drawn from the camera, the image had vanished. Our lamentation is like his, our want the same, a fixing solution that shall arrest and detain the fugitive impressions. He discovered the chemical power which turned the evanescent into the durable. There is a Divine agency at hand that can fix the truth upon the heart of man,—God’s Holy Spirit [J. Stoughton].
Hos_6:5. I presume the Lord sees I require more hammering and hewing than almost any other stone that was ever selected for his spiritual building, and that is the secret reason of his dealings with me. Let me be broken into a thousand pieces, if I may but be made up again, and formed by his hand for purposes of mercy [R. Hall].
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.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain Divine Mourning over Ephraim and Judah
CHAPTER 6:4-11
Divine Mourning over Ephraim and Judah
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1. What shall I do to thee? (Hos 6:4-6)
2. Their transgression (Hos 6:7-11)
Hos 6:4-6. The Lord grieves and mourns over the condition of the people whom He loves. After the brief glimpse given of their great future of glory we are brought back into the days of Moses. The Lord grieves and mourns over His people whom He loves, who today are still beloved for the Father’s sake Rom 9:1-33. But while He loved them, their love was like the morning cloud, like the dew, vanishing soon away. The morning cloud looks beautiful, gilded by the rays of the rising sun, but it quickly disappears through the heat of the sun; the dew glitters in the early morning, but soon it is gone. Thus was their love, fluctuating and changing. How often is the love of His heavenly people like the morning cloud and the dew! Thank God that His love never changes! The Prophets He had sent to them came, therefore, with words of condemnation, instead of words of comfort and cheer. They came to hew, as stone or wood is hewn, and the message of judgment they proclaimed condemned them; this is the meaning of the sentence, “I have slain them by the words of My mouth.”
Hos 6:7-11. “Yet they like Adam have transgressed the covenant; they have dealt treacherously against Me.” As God had made known His covenant to Adam, given him a commandment, so He had made a covenant with them and made known unto them His will. Like Adam they had transgressed the covenant. Adam had been called into relationship with His Creator and a place of blessing and favor in Eden had been given to him. He transgressed, and after his fall he was driven out. This happened to Israel. Called of God, who entered with them into a covenant and gave them the land of promise, but when they transgressed, like Adam, they were also driven out. Iniquity and blood was everywhere. Even the priests lurked as a band of robbers and murdered the travelers on the way to Shechem, one of the cities of refuge. (Note correct translation: “Upon the way they murder (those who go) to Shechem” Hos 6:9.)
(Attention has been called to an important distinction. Man is called a sinner. The Gentiles as such are never called transgressors. We read in the New Testament of sinners of the Gentiles, but never “transgressors” of the Gentiles. Adam was under a law, which he broke and by it he became a transgressor. Israel was under the law, which they broke and became transgressors. But no covenant existed with the Gentiles, nor had they the law given to them; hence while they are lost sinners, they are not called transgressors in the sense in which the covenant people are called transgressors.)
The horrible thing was that Israel was steeped in whoredoms; they were not only spiritually adulterers, but following the idol worship they lived in literal harlotry and lewdness. Judah, too, would get a harvest. But the final sentence of this chapter, “When I return the captivity of My people,” is a prophecy, not concerning the return from Babylon, but that other great restoration which is yet to come. Looked upon in this light the entire verse is prophetic. “For thee, also, Judah a harvest waits, when I shall turn the captivity of My people.” When God restores His people in His promised covenant mercies then Judah will be visited by judgment as it will be in the end of this age.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 Connecting Statement:
Connecting Statement:
Yahweh is speaking.
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what will I do with you?
God is expressing that his patience is coming to an end and what remains is judgment. AT: "it is hard to know what to do with you!" (See: Rhetorical Question)
So I have cut them to pieces by the prophets
Through his prophets, Yahweh has pronounced destruction on the rebellious nation. The destruction, here called "cutting to pieces," is as sure as the condemnation. (See: Metaphor)
Your decrees are like the light that shines out
Here the prophet Hosea is speaking to God. He may mean that when God gives the command for someone to die as punishment, it is like a bolt of lightning that strikes. Or he may mean that God's commandments allow people to know the truth, just as light makes objects visible. (See: Simile)
Your decrees
"Yahweh's commands"
translationWords
Ephraim
Judah
faithful
prophet
decree
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 6:4 The response of Israel was inadequate; God lamented…
6:4 The response of Israel was inadequate; God lamented that their love disappeared like morning mist and dew.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.