Hosea 6:3 - Hawker's Poor Man's Commentary

I beg the Reader at the very entrance upon this verse, to observe with me, that the little word if is in Italics; consequently hath no right to be there, and certainly ought not to be there, if the sense be injured by it, or lessened, or destroyed. And that it doth all this is very evident. For if it be left out the doctrine is plain and clear. Then shall we know; we shall follow on to know the Lord. For as the first knowledge of the Lord is wholly from his grace, and before that grace is given no one ever can know the Lord; so all the after knowledge is from the same divine teaching, and not deriving an atom from human study, or human attainments. Matthew 11:27. And I beg the Reader once for all to remark, that this, and similar ifs of scripture are never put in, as forming any cause or reason for such grace being shown, for the doctrine itself is absolute. Then shalt we know, saith the Prophet: when? even when the Lord hath raised up the poor sinner, and caused him to live in his sight. There is a similar passage, Hebrews 3:14. For we are made partakers (saith the Apostle) of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end. Here observe, the Holy Ghost is giving testimony of a present mercy, not speaking of one in future. He saith, we are made partakers of Christ. How was this wrought? Surely by grace. Hence therefore our holding fast the beginning of our confidence cannot be the cause, or condition of being made; for that hath been already done, and is really and actually enjoyed. It is only spoken of therefore as our truly feeling it, and knowing it, when by the lively actings of faith, we hold fast and live upon it. But what a whole, volume of the richest things is said of the Lord Jesus Christ, in the latter part of this verse. His goings forth have been prepared as the morning. And was it not so, when in the morning of eternity he came up at the call Jehovah, prepared in the everlasting council of peace for the redemption of his people? Was it not so, when in the day dawn, and day-star, of the early revelations in time, he came forth, as the sum and substance of every type, every shadow of the law; every promise, every intimation in the gospel? And is he not so now, and hath been in all ages of his Church, to all, and everyone of his redeemed, as prepared for them in the sweetest of all mornings, after the dark night of a sinful, fallen, ruined state, which must have ended in the everlasting blackness of despair, had not Jesus arisen as the sum of righteousness, with healing in his wings? And how doth he come to his people, when visiting them under their original dry and barren state of their wilderness nature, at the first, and in all the after manifestations of his grace? Is it not as the rain; both the latter and the former? Every grace of Jesus is indeed as the rain and dew of heaven; that is free, unmerited, unlooked for, and unsought. It tarrieth not for man, neither waiteth for the sons of men. Micah 5:7. How blessedly Jesus is spoken of under this figure. Psalms 72:6. He shall come down as the rain upon the mown grass: refreshing the earth when weary, and scorched, and dry. And I beg the Reader to observe the great beauty of the Prophet's expression, in putting the latter rain before the former, in allusion to the Lord Jesus Christ. For in Judea, there were generally two seasons of refreshing rains; the one in Autumn, the other in the spring. Now at the close of the Autumnal season the seed was then sown; this was what was called the latter rain, though in reality the first after seed time, therefore this is first spoken of, with an eye to Christ, in watering the souls of his people, when he hath sown the spiritual seed of his grace in their hearts. And the former season of the year Jesus refresheth them, in the time of the harvest, when he brings his redeemed home to his heavenly garner. Proverbs 16:15.