CRITICAL NOTES.—
Hosea 2:12. Vines and fig-trees] Esteemed rewards, wages of prostitution (Deuteronomy 23:19; Isaiah 23:17); the choicest produce of earth, denoting sustenance and prosperity, would be destroyed by Assyria (ch. Hosea 9:4-5).
PROSPERITY TURNED INTO ADVERSITY.—Hosea 2:12-13
Festive rejoicing was to end. Israel loved new moons and sabbath days not for the sake of religious worship, but for sinful pleasures and delight. The vine and fig-tree, the choicest productions of the land, and the source of great wealth and sustenance, were to be taken away. Orchards, gardens, and vineyards were to be neglected, deprived of defences, and exposed to wild beasts.
I. Prosperity in rich abundance. God is the Giver. There is no moment in all history, in all departments of life, in which he is not giving with a liberal and powerful hand. He is the author of abundance everywhere—abundant light, abundant rain, and abundant joys. Israel had a land flowing with milk and honey. The necessities and luxuries of life are given to men in abundance. Giving doth not impoverish him, nor withholding make him rich. But even to those who abuse his gifts, to the wicked and unthankful, God bestows prosperity. The ungodly prosper on earth. They are successful in business. Their bread seems to be gained without care, and their wines without stint. They are often in great power, ruling with the might of Cæsar and the wealth of Crœsus. “Spreading themselves like a green bay tree,” they are rooted in the world, add house to house, and field to field, rise higher and higher in splendour and pride. “They are not in trouble as other men; neither are they plagued like other men.” They escape many anxious cares and killing toil. God’s people smart under the rod while the wicked escape. But to the eye of faith and in the sanctuary of God these perplexities are unriddled. “Fret not thyself because of evil-doers, neither be thou envious at the prosperity of the wicked.”
II. Prosperity greatly abused.
1. Ascribed to wrong sources. A man can receive nothing except it be given him from heaven; but he looks to sinful and secondary causes, and boasts as if he had received nothing. Israel thought all their prosperity was bestowed by their idols. “These are my rewards that my lovers have given me.” Men look to their neighbours, or thank their stars, for their good fortune. They attribute success in business to their diligence and talent; believe themselves to be the architects of their own fortunes; and cry in the spirit of Nebuchadnezzar, “Is not this great Babylon that I have built,” &c.
2. Leading to sinful practices. “Wherein she burned incense to them, and she decked herself with her earrings and her jewels.” Like harlots, the Israelites adorned themselves to attract admirers; and like heathens, they burned incense to idol gods. One sin leads to another. Prosperity begets pride, and pride begets ingratitude. Then when God is deserted, his power, goodness, and love are attributed to another; sacrifices are offered and incense burned to unworthy deities. Ancient and modern idolatry have filled the world with corrupt practices and tendencies. Impurity, unchastity of every description, is most deteriorating. In dishonouring God, men have “dishonoured their own bodies” (Romans 1:24). Moral corruption is followed by physical debasement. The grossness of Pagan idolatry is only equalled by the degrading immoralities which it fostered and consecrated. Gluttony, drunkenness, and every “sin without the body,” only injures, does not alienate the body from God: “but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body,” commits sacrilege, and makes it like a harlot’s body (1 Corinthians 6:18-19).
III. Prosperity visited by Divine judgment. “I will destroy her vines and her fig-trees.” What God gives he can easily take away—turn our joy into mourning—our prosperity into adversity.
1. Temporal judgment. Before, God had threatened only to take away the fruits in their season; now he will take away not only fruit, but the trees that bare it. Present enjoyments and future prospects can be cut off; beauty, wealth, and honour wither like a flower; famine and sword can turn our vineyards into a desert. “He smote their vines also and their fig-trees; and brake the trees of their coast.”
2. Spiritual judgment. “I will visit upon her the days of Baalim.” Take one step to idolatry, we may be given up to more. God may seem to wink for a time, but a continual course of impenitence will be visited with severe punishment. Change Jehovah for Baal, you change prosperity for adversity, honour for shame, real enjoyment for sensual pleasure. God’s presence is seen and God’s voice is heard in all the vicissitudes of men. Woe to men when their table becomes a snare, “and that which should have been for their welfare a trap,” a retribution for their departure from God, and their inhumanity to themselves (Psalms 69:22).