CRITICAL NOTES.]
Hosea 13:5. Know] i.e. cared for them, and loved them as his own (Psalms 144:3; Amos 3:2).
Hosea 13:6.] A reproof from cattle growing wanton in abundant pasture; the very thing against which they were warned (Deuteronomy 8:11; Deuteronomy 32:15).
Hosea 13:7. Therefore] Israel, the flock in the field, shall be devoured by wild beasts, fierce as a lion, swift as a leopard, and savage as a bear robbed of her whelps (1 Samuel 17:34; 2 Samuel 17:8).
HELP IN THE EXIGENCIES OF LIFE.—Hosea 13:5
God loved and provided for his people in the wilderness. “In the land of great drought” and danger he never forsook them. Hence they should know and follow him. God is with his children now in the exigencies of life.
I. Our sinful condition is a wilderness. A barren and unfruitful land, where no water is. Without God the sinner is destitute of happiness and hope. He can neither quench his thirst nor satisfy his desires in sin. But God leads his people from sin to Christ. He knows the anguish and despair of the penitent, and gives joy and peace in believing.
II. Our outward circumstances are a wilderness. What uncertainty and change! What disappointment and sorrows! We are often led into solitude and distress, and have to cry unto God. We are often thrown into danger and surrounded by enemies. “They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way: they found no city to dwell in. Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them. Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses.”
III. Our inward experience is a wilderness. We are not self-sufficient. We do not carry our own resources within us. We have neither power to defend nor wisdom to guide us. Day by day we depend upon God, and have to live by faith, hope, and obedience. But God knows our emptiness, and sends manna from heaven. His presence is continually with us, and he provides a table in the wilderness. We are brought safely “through a land of deserts and of pits; through a land of drought and of the shadow of death; through a land that no man passed through, and where no man dwelt.” “Happy art thou, O Israel; who is like unto thee, O people saved of the Lord?” God’s goodness forms a marked contrast to the conduct of our fellow-creatures. We should show pity to one another. But, alas! we scarcely know a friend in trouble! God’s goodness should lead us to know and love him. Does God know that we are weaned from the world—in love with the means of grace, and ready to follow and seek him at all times?
DIVINE GOODNESS TURNED INTO DIVINE WRATH.—Hosea 13:5-8
God knew and loved Israel in the wilderness, commended them in their low estate, but complained of them in their prosperity. When they were delivered from the privations and hardships of the desert, fixed in the land of vineyards and fig-trees, they forgot God in prosperity and pride, and brought upon them righteous displeasure.
I. Goodness displayed to the helpless. “I did know thee in the wilderness.” When Israel were a helpless and dependent people, they often cried to God in distress, and he heard and helped them. Their situation yielded no supplies, but God permitted them to want no good thing. He gave them water from the rock and bread from heaven; suffered not their raiment to wax old upon them, nor their foot to swell in travelling; sent them his Holy Spirit to instruct, and ordinances to bless them. “He hath not dealt so with any nation.” We are under the immediate care of God, who provides for us and defends us. Some one says, “Life is a great want, and therefore should be one continual prayer.”
II. Goodness displayed to the ungrateful. “Therefore have they forgotten me” (Hosea 13:6). Their luxury, sensuality, and pride, made them insolent and secure. Worldly prosperity often feeds men’s pride, and makes them forget the giver of it. They remember God in want and sickness, but forsake him in plenty and ease. “Jeshurun waxed fat and kicked” (Deuteronomy 32:15; Deuteronomy 32:18). Men seek pasture, self-gratification, and not God. They abuse every gift, because their hearts are exalted against him. Prosperity, which ought to draw them to him, alienates them from him. They are ungrateful in proportion as they should love and praise him. Thus selfishness ever tends to hardness of heart and ingratitude. “If a man lacks gratitude,” says Pitt, “when there is infinite obligations to excite and quicken it, he will be likely to want all other virtues towards his fellow-creatures, whose utmost gifts are poor compared with those he daily receives from his never-failing Almighty Friend.” “Then beware lest thou forget the Lord which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.”
III. Goodness turned to wrath. “Therefore I will be unto them as a lion,” &c. Those who forget God in the gifts of his providence, wax fat and get proud in their prosperity, only prepare themselves a prey to retribution. Ingratitude at all times is most base. Capt. Speke found in the natives of central Africa the belief that “ingratitude, or neglecting to thank a person for a benefit conferred, is punishable.” If ingratitude from man to man be odious, in the sight of God it is without excuse and despicable. Its guilt is increased in a fourfold proportion, and must be estimated by the greatness of the giver, the unworthiness of the receiver, and by the number and excellency of the blessings bestowed. The ungrateful are “a generation of vipers,” who sting the bosom in which they have been nursed. How “sharper than a serpent’s tooth” is an ungrateful child!
1. Wrath most severe. “I will meet them as a bear that is bereaved of her whelps.” God is not overcome and carried away by passion as men. He is not vindictive in feeling, and unjust in his proceedings. But these figures set forth his determined opposition to wickedness, and the righteous visitation of judgment upon those who turn mercy into wrath. His anger will be fierce as a leopard watching by the way to seize upon travellers; furious as a bear enraged by the loss of her young; strong as a lion, the most terrible beast of the forest.
2. Wrath most destructive. The very vitals are destroyed. “Rend the caul,” devour them “and tear them.” The indignation, the punishment, seems almost beyond description. God can torture the soul, and cause his anger to burn against the sinner. “Who knoweth the power of his wrath?” He should be feared according to his anger, and praised for his goodness (Psalms 90:11). His mercy should lead us to repentance and gratitude. Those who despise “the riches of his goodness, and forbearance, and long-suffering,” treasure up unto themselves “wrath against the day of wrath, and the revelation of the righteous judgment of God.”
HOMILETIC HINTS AND OUTLINES
Hosea 13:6. Therefore have they forgotten me. Ingratitude.
1. A common sin.
2. Most unnatural.
3. Most unreasonable.
4. Most dangerous. “How shall I pardon thee for this? thy children have forsaken me, and sworn by them that are no gods: when I fed them to the full they committed adultery” (Jeremiah 5:7). Forgotten me. Forgotten their dependence upon me; their relationship to me; their duties to me. If not theoretically, men practically forget God (Psalms 10:4). Sins often connected with ingratitude, pride, hard-heartedness, selfishness, and idolatry. If men take gifts and feed upon them, in forgetfulness of the Giver, it need not be thought strange if God withholds them. Prosperity abused will be taken away. “When God gives thee prosperity, do thou enjoy it with a cheerful and thankful heart,” says Bp Reynolds. “In all time of our wealth, good Lord, deliver us,” is a prayer never out of season in times of ease and plenty.
First—Selfish indulgence. “According to their pasture, so were they filled.” God “giveth us richly all things to enjoy.” But the enjoyment of Christians differs from the excess of the sensual. We are not to feast without fear; to make provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof. Many mistake and suppose everything their own. They are only stewards. The first lesson in the school of Christ is self-denial. Where does this appear in the lives of some? Temperance is one of the graces of the spirit. This consists not only in avoiding drunkenness and gluttony, but in not “filling ourselves according to our pasture.”
Secondly—Pride. “They were filled, and their heart was exalted.” Hezekiah rendered not according to the benefits received; for “his heart was lifted up.” The apostle charges them that are rich in the world not “to trust in uncertain riches,” and shows the tendency there always is in worldly success to gender vanity and false confidence. Hence it is said, “Pride compasseth them about as a chain; violence covereth them as a garment.” They think highly of their understanding, as if wisdom grew with wealth. They speak with authority, and answer roughly.
Thirdly—Unmindfulness of God. “Therefore have they forgotten me.” How common for men in the midst of their sufficiency to lose the sense of their obligations to God, dependence upon and need of him! Hence the prayer of Agar against being rich, “Lest I should be full and deny thee, and say, Who is the Lord?” Hence the caution to the Jews when they entered Canaan, “Lest thou forget the Lord which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt.” The admonition was unavailable. This gives us a very humbling view of human nature. View it, not in the dregs of society, but as seen in common and reputable life. It will not appear so innocent, so amiable so noble as some represent it to be. Lord, what is man, that thou art mindful of him? Let the fact arouse us to caution and circumspection, if Providence smiles upon us, and we are placed in easy and comfortable circumstances. Watch and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. Seek grace which only can help to manage a full estate properly, so as to elude its snares and discharge its duties. It was said of Vespasian, that he was even a better man for being an emperor. So the prosperity of some, instead of destroying them, displays and increases their excellency; they are rich, not only in temporal things, but in faith and good works [Jay].
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 13
Hosea 13:5. Know thee. This cannot mean a mere acquaintance with their condition and circumstances; for what can be hid from him whose understanding is infinite? But it intends two things. First: He knew them so as to provide for them. Secondly: He knew them so as to approve of them and acknowledge them. The word know has this meaning often. “The Lord knoweth the way of the righteous” [Jay].
Hosea 13:6. Pastures. A curious instance of a change of instinct is mentioned by Darwin. The bees carried to Barbadoes and the Western Islands ceased to lay up honey after the first year. They found the weather so fine, and the materials for honey so plentiful, that they became exceedingly profligate, and ate up their capital, worked no more, and amused themselves by flying about the sugar-houses and stinging the negroes [Bib. Treasury].
Hosea 13:8. Bear. When the female is robbed of her whelps she is said to be more fierce than any other animal; hence many sayings refer to her rage, and are applied to the fury of violent men. “I will tear thee to pieces as a bear which has cubbed;” “Begone, or I will jump upon thee as a bear.” When a termagant goes with her children to scold, it is said, “There goes the she-bear and her whelps” [Roberts]