HOMILETICS
CRITICAL NOTES.]
Hosea 12:10. By prophets] who left no means untried, speaking in metaphors and methods adapted to rouse the attention (Numbers 12:6; Numbers 12:8; Joel 2:28).
GOD’S METHOD OF TEACHING THE PEOPLE.—Hosea 12:10
Hosea 12:10 expands Hosea 12:9, and further proves that the people had no excuse for their ignorance and sin. God had taught them from the first, “at sundry times and in divers manners,” by the prophets. Prophet succeeded prophet, and precept upon precept, line upon line, were given to impress Israel, and wean them from their sin. God speaks to men now by his word and providence.
I. The ministry of the prophets. “I have also spoken by the prophets.” Israel at Sinai requested that God would speak to them through human messengers, and from Moses to Malachi they had proofs of mercy and condescension The ministry of the gospel is a singular mercy (Isaiah 30:20), and suffers us not to walk in our own ways as other nations do (Acts 14:16). The prophets were “holy men of God,” exalted to dignity and consecrated to office. They had Divine teaching and Divine authority in their message. To reject them was to despise God. The eminence of their position and the solemnity of their words, aggravate the guilt of sinners. God reveals his will and speaks to us in his word, and by his servants now. Time after time, by minister after minister, does he urge men to repent and turn to him. Fearful will be the punishment of those who disobey his voice. “The Lord hath sent unto you all his servants the prophets, rising early and sending them, but ye have not hearkened, nor inclined your ear to hear.”
II. Visions of the night. The prophets were seers, highly privileged, and favoured with visions and dreams of the night, “when deep sleep falleth upon men” (Job 4:13). These visions were—
1. Continual. “I have repeatedly and continually” instructed them by visions. Ezekiel and Daniel, Paul and John, had wonderful visions. “If there be a prophet among you, I the Lord will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream” (Numbers 12:6-8).
2. Multiplied. “I have multiplied visions.” No age was left without its vision of the future. There were manifold dreams, and often a repetition of the same. If men disregard, God speaks once, yea twice, that he may bless them with light and truth. Such communications prove the dignity of our nature, the weakness of our fallen condition, and the connection of our souls with the invisible world. They are only given in secret, and require special strength and preparation to receive them (Daniel 10:7-8; Daniel 10:17-19).
III. Similitudes of nature. “And used similitudes.” All nature is a similitude or parable. Christ directs our attention to the grass of the field and the face of the sky, the earthly and heavenly sides of creation. God himself employed them (Isaiah 54:5; Isaiah 5:1), and taught the prophets to use them. Christ taught by parables, and his servants cannot do better than imitate him. The manner as well as the matter of preaching must commend itself to the people. Material signs symbolize spiritual truths. “Things take the signature of thought,” and we may find theology “wrought in each flower, inscribed on every tree.”
Tongues in trees; books in the running brooks;
Sermons in stones; and good in everything.
This method is simple and attractive, impressive and successful. The great teacher sanctions and commends it, and “the common people heard him gladly.”
HOMILETIC HINTS AND OUTLINES
The frequency and continuance of a ministry indicate God’s care and kindness to a people. But the more means of grace we have, the more earnest and powerful the sermons we hear, the greater our account if we persist in sin. “Ministers must turn themselves into all forms and shapes, both of spirit and speech, for the reaching of their hearer’s hearts; they must come unto them in the most wooing, winning, and convincing way that may be. Only in using of similes, they must—
1. Bring them from things known and familiar, things that their hearers are most acquainted with and accustomed to.
2. Similes must be very natural, plain, and proper.
3. They must not be too far urged [Trapp].
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 12
Hosea 12:10. Similitudes. I remember well, how once God preached to me by a similitude in the depth of winter. The earth had been black, and there was scarcely a green thing or flower to be seen. There was nothing but blackness as you looked around—bare hedges, leafless trees, and black, black earth wherever you looked. On a sudden God spake and unlocked the treasures of snow, and white flakes descended, until there was no blackness to be seen, all was one sheet of dazzling whiteness. I was seeking the Saviour, and it was then I found him. I remember well that sermon. “Come now and let us reason together; though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be whiter than wool” [Spurgeon].