Hosea 14:1. O Israel, return unto the LORD thy God; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity.
Come back, poor wanderer! My brother or my sister, if your heart has grown cold toward your Lord and Master, return to him this very hour. This message comes from God himself, through his servant the prophet, «O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity.
Hosea 14:2. Take with you words, and turn to the LORD: say unto him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously: so will we render the calves of our lips.
As if he feared that we could not find suitable words to speak to him, he puts the right words into our mouths. Our Heavenly Father is so anxious to bring back his children when they wander from him that he actually makes the prayer with which they may come back to him: «Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously: so will we render to thee the praise which is thy due, which shall come from our hearts, and which our lips shall express, «If there are any of you here who have grieved your Heavenly Father by growing cold at heart, I do trust that the spirit of God will sweetly draw you back again to your old standing, and to something higher and nearer to God than even that was.
Hosea 14:3. Asshur shall not save us; we will not ride upon horses: neither will me say any more to the work of our hands, Ye are our gods: for in thee the fatherless findeth mercy.
If you expect the Lord to smile upon you, you must have done away with all your idols. You must put away all your false confidences, and those other sinful things in which you have found even a little joy, and you must come back to your Father, throwing away those rivals which have been set up in your heart, and asking him to give you grace to live henceforth for him alone.
Hosea 14:4. I will heal their backsliding,
«Nobody else can do it, but I can, and I will. I will not chide them any more, I will not keep them at a distance from me as unworthy to draw near to me; but ‘I will heal their backslidings,'»
Hosea 14:4. I will love them freely;
That is a grand sentence. God could not love us anyhow else, for what price could you and I bring with which to purchase his love? And if his love were not most free, it could never come to such unworthy ones as we are: «I will love them freely;»
Hosea 14:4-5. For mine anger is turned away from him. I will be as the dew unto Israel:
You know that, in the East the dew is a great fertilizer, even more so than it is here; When a plot of ground is all browned by the hot sun, the dew makes it green and fruitful again. So God says, «I will be as the dew unto Israel:»
Hosea 14:5. He shall grow as the lily,
That is, upwards, bearing his flowers as near heaven as he can; not groveling as he once did. He shall grow rapidly, as the daffodil lily does, which seems to start up, in the East, after a shower of rain, and come to maturity at once. Lord, grant that we may bring forth lilies of grace all of a sudden! May there be in us the beauty of holy Christian love which shall come all at once! «He shall grow as the lily,
Hosea 14:5. And cast forth his roots as Lebanon.
There will be rapid growth, but sure growth. The lily has frail beauty, but Lebanon has the permanent lasting cedar; and God can make the graces of his people to be as enduring as they are beautiful.
Hosea 14:6-7. His branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive tree, and his smell as Lebanon. They that dwell under his shadow shall return;
His children, who were led into mischief by his bad example, shall be drawn back again.
Hosea 14:7-9. They shall revive as the corn, and grow as the vine: the scent thereof shall be as the wine of Lebanon. Ephraim shall say, What have I to do any more with idols? I have heard him, and observed him: I am like a green fir tree. From me is thy fruit found. Who is wise, and he shall understand these things? prudent, and he shall know them? for the ways of the LORD are right, and the just shall walk in them: but the transgressors shall fall therein.