CRITICAL NOTES.—
Hosea 2:11. Feast days] and festivals retained in worship should cease because abused.
MIRTH TURNED INTO MOURNING.—Hosea 2:11
Israel had forsaken the temple of God, and worshipped idols under the form of a calf—had changed some festivals, and kept up all in outward form. The monthly and yearly feasts were celebrated with mirth. God had commanded them to rejoice in their feasts (Deuteronomy 16:14); but their hymns and instrumental music, their priests and sacrifices, were licentiousness and falsehood, luxury and excess of every description and degree. Their joy must cease and their mirth would be turned into mourning.
I. Mirth connected with wickedness.
1. It is a most prevalent connection. “The notes of jollity and fun are heard everywhere through society. At theatres, taverns, divans, and social festivities, it flares and rattles. The drunkard has his mirth, the liar his mirth, the debaucher his mirth, the blasphemer his mirth, the sabbath-breaker his mirth. The union of sin and mirth is, alas, very common. “We meet it everywhere; in the dance and in the song, in the joke and in the gibe” [Dr Thomas].
2. It is a most unreasonable connection. Wickedness and mirth, how incongruous! “Sorrow is better than laughter” to the wicked. “For by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better.” The condition and prospects of a sinner should make him weep rather than rejoice. Sin can never give true happiness. The world can never be our home, and the heart cannot rest there. Its resources are poor; its pleasures are not solid; and when its “joys are all packed up and gone,” then will be the days of mourning. Even in laughter the heart is sorrowful; and the end of that mirth is heaviness.
II. Mirth connected with false religion. If sin and mirth are unreasonable, how much more mirth and idolatry! Israel turned “her feast days, her new moons, and her sabbaths” into days of making merry. On the Sabbath they should have owned God as their Creator; on other festive days they should have thanked him for the gifts of Nature and the wonders of Providence. But the worship of God was blended with the service of idols; and feigned joy under the form of true joy. As Israel of old “made a calf in Horeb,” the place of solemnities and law: so men now worship “graven images;” cling to forms of their own device; and change true joy into false mirth. Joy becomes a feast; but the revelry that marked heathen festivals can never become the house of God. Communion with God can never be enjoyed through consecrated symbols. “Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.”
III. Mirth turned into mourning. Their songs were to cease, and their music and dancing turned into weeping and wailing. “I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation” (Amos 8:10). The mirthful songs of sinners suddenly change into shrieks of agony and death. Many a sigh is heard amid loudest laughter. The smiles of mirth are counterfeits to hide hearts of woe. Belshazzar’s impious feast to a thousand lords ended by his own destruction and that of his empire. “Be merry and wise.” “Fly the pleasure which bites to-morrow.” Mirth pursued, possessed, and enjoyed without God is vanity (Ecclesiastes 7:6).
1. It is of short duration. It is but “the crackling of thorns under a pot,” a blaze for a moment, an excitement which cannot last.
2. It is certain in its termination. I “will cause her mirth to cease.” It may be attractive in its appearance, supported by its resources, and spread by its devotees; but the solemn warning is read, “Woe unto you that laugh now; for ye shall mourn and weep.”
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 2
Hosea 2:10-11. Mirth. Mirth is a vain and unprofitable passion, not fit for a wise man’s entertainment [Bp. Hall].
Often when in the full enjoyment of all that this world could bestow, my conscience told me, that in the true sense of the word I was not a Christian. I laughed. I sang. I was apparently gay and happy. But the thought would steal across me,—what madness is all this! to continue easy in a state, in which a sudden call out of the world would consign me to everlasting misery, and that when eternal happiness is within my grasp [Wilberforce]. Mirth at a funeral is scarce more indecent or unnatural than a perpetual flight of gaiety and burst of exultation in a world like this; a world which may seem a paradise to fools, but is an hospital with the wise [Dr Young].
Forgetfulness of God, Hosea 2:13. Such is the character of all engrossing passion, such is the source of sin to which the soul gives way, in avarice, ambition, worldliness, sensual sin, godless science. The soul at last does not rebel against God; it forgets him. It is taken up with other things, with itself, with the subjects of its thoughts, the objects of its affections, and it has no time for God, because it has no love for him [Pusey].
The gradations of sin.
1. Neglecting God. Neglect of his word, house, and service.
2. Forgetting God. Forgetting his love, goodness, and claims.
3. Departing from God. Departing into danger, error, and punishment.
Forgetfulness of God—a sign of carelessness—a mark of ingratitude and contempt—springs from unbelief and disobedience to God’s command (Deuteronomy 4:9; Deuteronomy 8:14).
Idolatry in the Church—the top-stone, the height of all crime—hated by God, and pursued by the sinner. Professed believers are too slow after God, but sinners hasten after their lovers. Let their zeal rebuke our tardiness; their punishment turn our steps to God and duty
The two masters.
1. Jehovah forgotten, Baal loved and worshipped.
2. The sacred days of Jehovah turned into festive days of Baal.
3. The gifts of Jehovah devoted to the service and support of Baal. “No man can serve two masters,” &c. Which are you serving? “Choose you this day,” &c.