CRITICAL NOTES.—
Hosea 2:2. Plead] Jehovah makes the demand, urges individual Israelites to reason with the mother, i.e. the nation viewed as one. The children were seduced, in danger of punishment, and as penitents must protest against her conduct. Wife] Forfeited all claims to my protection. Sight] Lit. from her face, the seat of modesty and shame (Jeremiah 3:8; Jeremiah 6:15). “The eyes are windows through which death, i.e. lawless desire, enters into the soul, and takes it captive” [Pusey].
Hosea 2:3. Strip] Nudity, the ancient punishment of an adulteress (Ezekiel 16:37). Set] Lit. fix her as a gazing-stock, in a state of helplessness and misery. Wilderness] Reduced to want; an outward type of inward distress (Jeremiah 2:6).
Hosea 2:4. Children] inherit the nature, and exposed to the judgment, of their mother. Many imagine because free from the guilt and stain of sin they will not share its punishment.
Hosea 2:5. Done shamefully] Heb. to practise shame (2 Samuel 19:5). “She made shameful everything which she could make shameful—her acts, her children, and herself” [Pusey]. The reproach of the mother should rouse the sons from spiritual apathy. Lovers] Idols and idolatrous nations whose alliance they courted, and to whom they ascribed the gifts of life, bread and water (Jeremiah 44:17); a picture of life estranged from God.
HOMILETICS
FILIAL EXPOSTULATION.—Hosea 2:1-5
The mother is the representative of the nation, of the ungodly in all nations and families. The sons must plead with them. They are involved in judgments, left orphans, and without protection, by the conduct of their mother.
I. Charge her with dissolution of the Marriage Contract. “She is not my wife.” A spiritual union was formed between God and his people, under terms of great endearment and oneness. But she was no longer united to God by faith and love, and God would own her no longer. Churches and individuals who give themselves to God must not decline in love. This will forfeit the honour, the protection of God, and his covenant relation; provoke him to anger, and lead to divorcement. How touching is the rebuke uttered by the complaint, Thou no longer lovest me! “She is not my wife, I am not her husband!” The history of the Church is a sad commentary upon these words. The Church at Ephesus was not wanting in purity of doctrine, nor in severity of discipline. The Lord disclosed the heart and published the fault. “Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.”
II. Urge her to put away Sin. The idolatry is described as whoredom and adultery; a breach of fidelity which Israel owed to God; an act of apostasy from God; more culpable than heathenish idolatry and superstitions.
1. A public sin. Israel, like a barefaced harlot, displayed her sins in public before men. Publicity tempts the weak, taints the innocent, and leads to ruin. Wickedness like this is the most dissolute, and its woe will be the most intense. Some sin secretly, but others proclaim their sin to the world—they glory in their shame.
2. A shameful sin. The face and the breasts are those parts of the body which display want of chastity, and depict boldness and shamelessness. Many neither shame nor blush at their vice. Boldness without confession of wrong, wickedness done with desire of recognition, impudence in sin, will lead to hardness of heart. Those who will not blush will soon be unable to blush. “Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? Nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore they shall fall among them that fall.”
III. Warn her of Danger. Sin always involves risk, and brings its consequences upon ourselves and others. Every one is in duty bound, in his house, among his friends and relations, and in his country, to labour for the happiness and good of all, to check the wickedness and ward off the dangers by which he is surrounded.
1. She will expose herself. “Lest I strip her naked, and set her as in the day that she was born,” &c. (a) Expose herself to nakedness and helplessness. Israel taken when weak and few in number; trained, fed, and clothed by God like a little child; married to God, and adorned as a bride; should now be stripped, deprived of every ornament, as an adulterous wife; of all temporal and spiritual blessings as a people; and left naked and helpless, a gazing-stock to others. When God ceases to care and provide for a people, withholds the gifts of nature and of grace, they will become defiled by sin, cast out and loathsome. Like Adam and Eve, they will lose their innocence, and learn their nakedness. Divine judgments strip men of natural defence, family honour, and leave them “naked unto their shame amongst their enemies” (Exodus 22:25). (b) Expose herself to want and distress. “Make her as a wilderness, and set her like a dry land.” Incursions and hostilities of the enemy could lay her waste as a wilderness; or put her in great straits and distress, as in the desert when they came out of Egypt. Idolatry desolates the land and brings the devouring sword. She would be like a dry land, destitute of food and the maintenance of life. Well-watered gardens become deserts through sin. The outward is a type of the inward. “Mind hath its deserts no less than Region,” says Bacon. “Everything that I love,” said Napoleon, “everything that belongs to me, is stricken. Heaven and mankind unite to afflict me.” The soul of the sinner is desolate and unfruitful in the ways and works of God; devoid of God’s presence and blessing; unrelieved by green pastures and living rills. “Your house is left unto you desolate,” are words which describe the doom of all without Christ. Hungry and thirsty, they are not satisfied, but perish like a traveller in want. “Slay her with thirst.”
2. She would endanger her children. “I will not have mercy upon her children”—children of whoredom inheriting the nature and suffering from the conduct of their mother. There is no security in sin. The rising generation do not escape. Parents entail a curse upon their offspring, and individuals are involved in national calamities. As good is diffused on every hand, so evil has its consequences; consequences which have their influences, results themselves pregnant with other results, in endless succession. Our endeavour should be to guard ourselves from the evil of others, and guard against detriment from our own acts. “This man perished not alone in his iniquity.”
IV. Reprove her for Folly. She had acted shamefully in word and deed, towards herself and her children. The course of sin is a course of shame. The sinner forgets his best friend, and forsakes his own mercy. “What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed?” The conduct of Israel was an affront to God and a reproach to man. To fall down to any image, ancient or modern, is to turn our glory into shame. This was—
1. An ungrateful sin. God set before them his law and judgments, promised blessings for obedience, and had given them the necessities and the luxuries of life; “more than corn, wine, and oil” (Psalms 4:7); but they claimed these gifts as their own; “my bread and my water;” or ascribed them to the lovers they followed. Men care for the things of time and sense, lands, houses, and life, and forget the claims, the prior right of God. These things are only lent us, must not be held upon wrong tenure and made our gods. “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.”
2. An aggravated sin. Amid Divine chastisement Israel encouraged herself in idolatry. She called the objects of her choice “lovers,” and drew others to follow her in pursuit. She waits not for invitation and allurement, but eager and unbidden, contrary to natural feeling and covenant pledge, she cries, “I will go,” She was obstinate in pursuit, and avowed her determination. Abuse is added to ingratitude; God is forsaken for the pleasures of life, and men attribute present happiness and prosperity to sin, rather than to his goodness and forbearance. Take heed lest ye be fattened and fitted for slaughter. Aggravated sin ripens for judgment. He that despises God’s reproof “shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.”
3. A delusive sin. Idols do not give the necessities and enjoyments of life. God alone can fill men’s “hearts with food and gladness” (Acts 14:17). The heathens had a goddess of corn and gods of wine from whom they expected these gifts; so men now make their gods, and fancy that these gods will help them. They delude themselves by error and folly; make things outside of God their lovers; and deify their talents or the laws of nature. We belong to God, and all things are at his disposal. If we do not trust in him, we “observe lying vanities.” Man must have a god, and if he will not love and serve the true and living God, he makes a fool of himself, and pays homage to a lie and a delusion. “As they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind.”
HOMILETIC HINTS AND OUTLINES
Hosea 2:1 may be taken as (in last chapter),
1. A declaration of joy. Wrath passed away and mercy remembered.
2. A declaration of Christian experience. (a) To encourage others. (b) To glorify God. God’s grace is magnified; God’s word is proved to be faithful; God’s name made known, and others are induced to repent and trust in him. “Say ye to your brethren, Ammi.”
3. An exhortation to the converted to plead with the unconverted. The few faithful in faithless Israel must plead with others. Those who know God must expostulate with those who do not know him; children with parents; relatives with relatives. (a) This a natural order. We naturally feel for friends and relatives. We may not forget others, but we begin at home. Andrew was acquainted with Jesus and related to Peter. “He first findeth his own brother Simon.” Paul could wish himself accursed for his kindred in the flesh (Romans 9:3). (b) This a Divine order. “Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee” (Mark 5:19). “Let them (children) learn first to show piety at home” (1 Timothy 5:4). (c) This the most successful order. We have greater sympathy for friends, more love to our own, than others. They are more likely to be influenced and persuaded by us than others. “Plead with your mother, plead” earnestly, faithfully, and continually.
Hosea 2:3. The folly of sin.
1. It strips men of blessings.
2. Exposes them to shame and danger.
3. Leaves them helpless and distressed. The sinner is naked; bereft of grace, love, and protection; and exposed to famine and peril. A Christian Church which throws off the ornaments of Divine grace and Divine ordinances will be stripped of outward privileges—spiritual gifts despised will lead to withdrawal of temporal gifts.[1]
[1] “Sin is a wasting plague to souls, countries, and enjoyments, for so is imported in the words, and ‘make her as a wilderness,’ ” &c. [Hutcheson].
Hosea 2:4. Mercy withheld from children, churches, or nations, is a sad addition to their trouble. There is nothing to moderate, prevent, or remove their sorrow.
Hosea 2:5. “I will go.” The infatuation of the sinner, who hardens, emboldens himself in sin, and rushes, heedless of warnings and judgments, to shame and destruction. Steps in apostasy from God.
1. Renouncing obedience.
2. Loving idols.
3. Ascribing God’s gifts to idols.
4. Justifying this course from benefits received. “We too have our idols, which our natural hearts madly run after, turning away from God. Whatever we make our chief good, outside of God, is an idol. How apt, moreover, we are to take God’s gifts, our food, clothing, comforts, and luxuries, as if they were our own by some peculiar right; calling them ‘my bread, my water, my wool, my flax,’ and to attribute our possession of them to our gold, our industry, and our talents, making these our gods” [Fausset’ s Com.]. God is the real giver of all temporal and spiritual blessings. If, therefore, thou hast any want, seek its supply from God [Lange].[2]
[2] “As it is a great sin to depart from God and his true worship, so especially is it a shameful way of departing from him when men’s ends are so low and base that they will follow any way of religion for interest and advantage, and account the thriving way best. Israel thought she throve best in and because of her idolatry. ‘they give me my bread,’ &c. [Hutcheson].
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 2
Hosea 2:1-5. Mothers and children. When a mother once asked a clergyman when she should begin the education of her child, then four years old, he replied, “Madam, if you have not begun already, you have lost those four years. From the first smile that gleams upon an infant’s cheek your opportunity begins.” The mother lives again in her children. They unconsciously mould themselves after her manner, her speech, her conduct, and her method of life. Her habits become theirs, and her character is visibly repeated in them” [Smiles]. Children may be strangled, but deeds never: they have an indestructible life, both in and out of our consciousness [George Eliot].