CRITICAL NOTES.—
Hosea 10:1. Empty] Luxuriant. Lit. poureth out, emptying itself into leaves; stretching itself far and wide towards foreign alliances (Psalms 80:9; Psalms 80:12); outwardly prosperous, but no ripe grapes, sound fruit to God. Bringeth] Lit. sets or prepares fruit from and to itself. Altars] multiplied as his fruit. The greater prosperity, the greater ingratitude and idolatry.
Hosea 10:2. Divided] by themselves between God and idols (1 Kings 18:21). He] Emphat. Jehovah, not the enemy. Break] Heb. behead—a bold expression. As victims are beheaded, so the horns of the altar shall be broken off (Amos 3:14).
Hosea 10:3. Now] Lit. soon. King] Words of despair. Deprived of a king, or in a state of anarchy: forsaken of God for their sin, what could a king do? To us] Lit. for us (ch. Hosea 13:10)? Whatever we have will not avail, if God help not.
Hosea 10:4. Words] without substance and sincerity, nothing but vain talk (Isaiah 58:13). Falsely] Their covenants lack truth, and easily broken (2 Kings 17:4). Judgment] A good and healthy plant to society, springs up and spreads far and wide, like bitter and poisonous hemlock in the field. They prepared the soil for judgment by cultivating injustice. Perverted justice is like rank poison, injurious to community.
HOMILETICS
THE ABUSE OF OUTWARD PROSPERITY.—Hosea 10:1-4
Israel is now accused of fruitlessness and selfishness. God blessed them with abundant prosperity, but it was abused. The increase of their wealth only tended to the increase of sin; the multiplication of images; the spread of deceit and perjury. They were good for nothing, a degenerate vine, luxuriant in leaves, but empty before God (Ezekiel 15:3; Ezekiel 15:5).
I. Outward prosperity used for selfish ends. “He bringeth forth fruit unto himself.” Whatever fruit they had was expended on self. “Life,” says Carlyle, “begins with renunciation.” The worldly man believes that life begins in getting, is enjoyed by keeping, and that he who renounces most will have the least. Men, like Israel, seek refuge from trouble and pleasure in life, by living in a world of their own.
1. Self was considered the source of their prosperity. Man is his own creator and redeemer, self-sufficient and strong, in their estimation. All selfishness is self-assertion, a practical repudiation of our helpless and sinful condition. The gospel alone can break down the rule of self, and bring Christ as the object of love and obedience.
2. Self was considered the end of their prosperity. Israel refused culture. Men are self-willed, live not for God, but for their own lusts and aggrandizement. They detest and will not forgive in others what they indulge in themselves. Grasping in their disposition, using God’s gifts for self, they dedicate wealth and business to self. Everything is expended for gratification, honour, and position. Prosperity is abused, the right of our fellow-men and the claims of God are disregarded. Men deny their stewardship, and retributive justice takes their unlawful gains. “When ye did eat, and when ye did drink, did not ye eat for yourselves, and drink for yourselves?” (Zechariah 7:6).
II. Outward prosperity used in disregard to God. In living for self they had no regard to the claims of their God. Reason and revelation teach that God should be the supreme object of affection. But selfishness seeks to rival God and alienate our love from him.
1. This disregard springs from divided allegiance. “Their heart is divided.” “They were fearers of the Lord, and they were servers of their gods” (2 Kings 17:32-33). They would give up neither, but tried to worship both. We cannot serve God and Mammon (Matthew 6:24). One object must be supreme in our mind. If we cast off God, then Mammon will govern, in some form, our thoughts, feelings, and purposes. A divided heart is a faulty heart. God will not have part, but the whole service. There must be no halting between God and Baal. Decision must be made now before it be too late. “How long halt ye between two opinions?”
2. This disregard is clothed in the forms of devotion. They had altars and idols, a fair show of profession, and outward forms; but their piety emptied itself in transient feelings and false notions. Like many now who make a fair show in the flesh, but do not produce the fruits of the Spirit, love, joy, and peace. “Fruits unto holiness and to God” are acceptable; but fruits unto selfishness are “nigh unto cursing, whose end is to be burned” (Hebrews 6:8). What a mockery to put on the garb of religion, when the heart is divided and alienated from God! Alas! what empty vines in the Christian Church in this very day! Those who seek their own credit or worldly profit in religious duties will be accounted unfaithful branches. But all who abide in Christ, will bring forth fruit to the glory of God and the benefit of men.
3. This disregard is in proportion to their outward prosperity. “According to the goodness of his land they have made goodly images.” Enriched by the produce of their land, they made beautiful images, increased their ingratitude and sin. The greater God’s blessings to men, the more they abuse his gifts. The more God lavishes favours upon them, the more determined are they to adore themselves and worship their idols. Flourishing trade begets wealth; wealth begets pride; and pride self-sufficiency. Men grow in sensuality, avarice, and wickedness. Prosperity destroys the piety of some men. The sun shines, dulls and extinguishes the fire. The insidious influence of prosperity may be seen in William, Duke of Normandy, whose bravery and candour gained respect at a distance, but in the possession of power fell into contempt among his friends and subjects. Macaulay gives an instance in the Earl of Tarrington, who rose into a hero in poverty and exile, but sank again into a voluptuary in prosperity. “I was ruined by too easy success in early life,” said some one. “In all time of our wealth, good Lord, deliver us.” “The prosperity of fools shall destroy them.”
III. Outward prosperity abused will bring punishment. “He shall break down their altars,” &c.” The sin of Israel became the very means of their punishment. The gold with which they beautified their idols tempted the invader, and involved them in hopeless ruin. Their own idols became their own misery. All who pursue pleasure and ambition, who give themselves to earthly idols, will, through their heartlessness and idolatry, lose both God and their own selves, and become a castaway at last. Kings and princes, creature-comforts and creature-confidences, will not avail, when God is lost. “Because we feared not the Lord, what then should a king do for us?” Every idolized dependence will soon be torn away from those who fear not God. Nothing can help them in their distress. Suffering and remorse, regrets and unavailing self-reproach for ever, will be their portion. “If the Lord do not help thee, whence shall I help thee?” (2 Kings 6:27).
HOMILETIC HINTS AND OUTLINES
Hosea 10:1. Vine. The Christian Church is a vine brought out of Egypt, an unfriendly soil, displacing old trees, and planted in its position by God’s hand (Psalms 80:8-11). Hence the parallel between the Church and a vine.
1. Its transplanting from an unfruitful to a fertile soil.
2. Its careful keeping.
3. Its grand design—to bear fruit. Then (a) it is beautiful, (b) useful, (c) acceptable to God. If empty and fruitless, it is just the reverse of all this, entirely worthless. The sap of life, the energies of mind, in some men and in some Churches, spent in ambitious schemes, luxuriant leaves and professions. The grace and gifts of God are received in vain. All things “bloom their hour and fade.”
Nothing but leaves! The Spirit grieves
Over a wasted life;
O’er sins indulged while conscience slept,
O’er vows and promises unkept;
And reaps from years of strife—
Nothing but leaves! nothing but leaves!
Hosea 10:2. A divided heart. I. A fearful disease.
1. It affects a vital part.
2. It affects after the most deadly fashion—a divided heart.
3. It is peculiarly loathsome.
4. It is one difficult to cure. It is chronic, got into the very nature of man.
5. It is a flattering disease. II. Its usual symptoms.
1. One of the most frequent is formality in religious worship.
2. Another, inconsistency.
3. Another, variableness in object.
4. Frivolity in religion is another symptom. III. Its sad effects.
1. A divided heart makes the man himself unhappy.
2. He is useless in the Church. 3. A man dangerous to the world.
4. The most solemn is, reprobate in the sight of God. IV. Its future consequences. Terrible will be the condition of the hypocrite at the judgment-day. He will be separated from the righteous and found among those whom he taught and reproved. If your heart is broken, it differs from a divided heart. There is hope and pardon for you. God can give a new heart [Spurgeon].
1. The sin—a divided heart.
2. The guilt—“found faulty.”
3. The punishment—“he shall break down,” &c. God will convince the most obstinate of their guilt, if not by the word now, by his judgments hereafter. If they do not suppress, but constantly maintain their sins, God will take the work in his own hands, destroy the monuments of idolatry at their own expense. “He shall break down … He shall spoil.”
The state of the heart is the source of the evil. As long as this does not belong to him, so long will men rob him of his own. God will have the heart as his alone, and suffers none to share that possession [Lange].
Hosea 10:3. If men fear not God, but seek to ward off his judgments, by continuing in sin and trusting to kings and great men; their defence will become a snare, and their confidence will be turned into disappointment. Men cannot shelter when God is angry. “What then should a king do for us?” “These are words of despair, not of repentance; of men terrified by the consciousness of guilt, but not coming forth out of its darkness; describing their condition, not confessing the iniquity which brought it on them. Without love the memory of their evil deeds crushes them beyond hope of remedy. They groan for their losses, their sufferings, their fears, but do not repent.”
HOMILETICS
PERJURY JOINED TO HYPOCRISY.—Hosea 10:4
Their dissimulation of heart was seen in their lives and general conduct. They made no conscience of their duty. There was no dependence upon anything they said or did. The whole nation was corrupt.
I. There was no truth in their words. “They have spoken words.” Mere words, empty vain words, without any truth or substance. Great swelling words, full of noise and profession, to gain their point and bear down the prophets; words foolish as they were bombastic, to veil their deceit and decoy to sin. The mouth should always express the heart. Pythagoras said he would rather his disciples should throw stones at random than utter a false word. “Speak fitly, or be silent wisely,” says Geo. Herbert. “The turn of a sentence,” says Bentham, “has decided the fate of many a friendship, and, for aught that we know, the fate of many a kingdom.” “By thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.”
II. There was no sanctity in their oaths. “Swearing falsely.” Whatever be the form of an oath, the signification is the same. We call God to witness, or notice what we say. The offender therefore sins in the presence of God, and in defiance of the sanctions of religion. His sin implies contempt of God’s power and justice, man’s wants and confidence. “Perjury, therefore,” says Paley, “in its general consequence, strikes at the security of reputation, property, and even of life itself. A lie cannot do the same mischief, because the same credit is not given to it.” “Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths.”
III. There was no faithfulness in their covenants. “Falsely in making a covenant.” In their agreements one with another, in their allegiance to their kings, they could not be depended upon. In treaties with foreign nations they concealed their treacherous intentions, and observed them only so long as they were benefited by them. In covenanting with God they promised to be faithful, yet supported idolatry and rebelled against their lawful sovereign. They uttered and acted lies. No considerations can justify the sacrifice of truth, which ought to be supreme in all the engagements and relations of life. Truth is the very bond of society, without which it will dissolve into anarchy and chaos, or cease to exist. A household cannot be governed by lying and perjury; neither can a nation. Sir Thos. Browne was once asked, “Do the devils lie?” “No,” he answered, “for then even hell could not subsist.”
IV. There was no justice in their judgments. “Thus judgment springeth up as hemlock in the furrows of the field.” An unjust king sets a bad example to his people. A corrupt court will make a corrupt nation. If the fountain be bitter, the streams cannot be sweet. How sad when judgment is perverted by those who should administer it! when injustice like a bitter plant poisons the life, and spreads in the manners of a nation. If men sow injustice, they will reap a harvest, full and obnoxious, “as hemlock in the furrows of the field.” Penn’s advice to his children was good: “Let justice have its impartial course, and the law free passage. Though to your loss, protect no man against it, for you are not above the law, but the law above you. Live, therefore, the lives yourselves you would have the people live, and then you have right and boldness to punish the transgressor. Use no tricks, fly to no devices to support or cover injustice; but let your hearts be upright before the Lord, trusting in him above the contrivances of men, and none shall be able to hurt or supplant you.” “We will sell justice to none,” is an article in the Magna Charta. Want of up-rightness will overthrow a people, “turn judgment into wormwood” and gall; but “the king by judgment establisheth the land” (Proverbs 29:4; Amos 5:7).
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 10
Hosea 10:1. Fruit for self. Selfishness is the universal form of human depravity. Every sin that can be named is only a modification of it. What is avarice, but selfishness grasping, and hoarding? What is prodigality, but selfishness decorating and indulging itself—a man sacrificing to himself as his own God? And what is idolatry, but that God enshrined man, worshipping the reflection of his own image [Harris]?
Hosea 10:2. Divided heart. In matters of great concern and which must be done there is no surer argument of a weak mind than irresolution; to be determined where the case is so plain and the necessity so urgent. To be always intending to lead a new life, but never to find time to set about it, this is as if a man should put off eating and drinking and sleeping from one day and night to another, till he is starved and destroyed [Tillotson].
Hosea 10:4. Truthful. Above all things speak the truth in words and actions. Let your word be your bond. Every violation of truth is moral suicide in the liar and a stab at the health of human society. “Truth,” says Jeremy Collier, “is the bond of union and the basis of human happiness. Without this virtue there is no reliance on language, no confidence in friendship, no security in promises and oaths.”