TRUE CONVERSION TO GOD.—Hosea 12:6
CRITICAL NOTES.]
Hosea 12:6. Turn] Lit. thou shalt turn, so turn as to enter into vital fellowship with God (Isaiah 10:22). Thou] who wishest to be a true descendant, pray and act as Jacob.
“Therefore” to this God, who rules heaven and earth, Israel had only to turn in truth, and they would find in him what Jacob found. God offers himself to his apostate people, and all may claim a covenant right in him if they sincerely return to him. This return or conversion to God is described.
I. Induced by the revelation of God’s character. “Therefore,” if God is good, and able to save, they need not seek help from any other source.
1. Revelations in his word. “Thy God.” We may disown, but can never cast off, our relationship to God as dependent, guilty creatures. He claims us in our sin, and does not reject us when we return to him. He is a God of love, not revengeful and unmerciful. The revelations of his word are suited to quicken our hearts, to destroy our “enmity with God,” and draw us to him in penitence and faith. We clothe God in attributes of vengeance and thunder. But a persuasion of personal love wrought in the soul will induce the sinner to return. “He hath loved me.” This is “the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus,” and revealed only in him.
2. Revelations of his mercy to others. What God has done for others he can do for us. Paul obtained mercy for a pattern to others. Bunyan and Newton were sinners saved by grace. Men in every age and in every degree of guilt have been monuments of God’s mercy, and living examples of the power of God’s word. “To show in the ages to come the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us by Christ Jesus.”
II. Evidenced by the practical duties of life. When the sinner turns to God, he will bring forth fruits meet for repentance (Matthew 3:8). His life will not be empty profession, but filled with fruits of righteousness to God and man.
1. Duties to man. The duties of the second table, the weightier matters of the law, must not be overlooked. For if we disregard man, whatever professions we make before God, our religion is vain. “He that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?” (a) Mercy. Men are weak and miserable, and need sympathy and compassion. We must not treat them with cruelty and injustice. Mercy wins and “blesseth him that gives and him that takes.” On one occasion the ministers of Alphonsus, king of Naples, complained that his lenity did not become a prince. “What, then,” said he, “would you have lions and tigers reign over you? Know you not that cruelty is the attribute of wild beasts—clemency that of man?” “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.” (b) Judgment. Justice, by which we give to all men their due. It is opposed to dishonesty, fraud, and unfairness of any kind. “A just man,” says Jeremy Taylor, “does justice to every man and to every thing; and then, if he be also wise, he knows there is a debt of mercy and compassion due to the infirmities of man’s nature, and that is to be paid, and he that is cruel and ungentle to a sinning person, and does the worst to him, dies in his debt and is unjust.” “All things whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even so unto them, for this is the law and the prophets.”
2. Duties to God. To cherish and keep up the fruits of conversion, we must “wait,” in communion with God. He only who begins can perfect the good work. Our sufficiency in every duty can only come from God. Hence, “wait on thy God continually.” (a) Wait in dependence upon God. Such as turn to God truly will be careful to keep closely to God, and will feel their need of God daily. In him we live, and move, and have our being naturally and spiritually. Dependence is essential to spiritual life. Just as human wants promote human efforts and energies, so trust in God will prompt to love and duty. (b) Wait with hope in God. Waiting implies hoping. The longer we wait the more we prove that our expectation is not crushed. The hopeless will be a lifeless soul; but hope kindles desire, and makes “expectation rise.” “If we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.” (c) Wait continually upon God. There must be no cessation, no interruption of this duty. The greatest joy destroys not our dependence; the greatest failure should not drive us to despair. Sad desertions and apparent rejections do not warrant us to give up. “Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord.”
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 12
Hosea 12:6. Judgment. The one thing constantly reiterated by our master; the order of all others that is given oftenest, “Do justice and judgment.” That’s your Bible order; that’s the “service of God,” not praying or psalm-singing. Unless we perform Divine service in every willing act of life we never perform it at all. The one Divine work—the one ordered sacrifice—is to do justice; and it is the last we are ever inclined to do [Ruskin].