CRITICAL NOTES.—
Hosea 2:8. Not know] Wilful ignorance and ingratitude, for she was taught by the law and the providence of God. Prepared] Made and mended images of Baal, and devoted them to the support and extension of idolatry.
Hosea 2:9. Return] As if absent from men when they abuse his gifts: turn from love to displeasure; from bestowing bounties to withholding them. Recover] Because “I” emphatic, the given not acknowledged. Nakedness] The result of gifts withheld. Take away] by dearth and unfruitful seasons, vermin, judgments, &c.
HOMILETICS
GOD DISHONOURED IN HIS GIFTS TO MEN.—Hosea 2:8-9
Israel is still accused and threatened. God will disgust the idolatrous nation, put to shame its delusive fancy that all prosperity came from idols, and bring it to an acknowledgment of dependence upon him. In gross and affected ignorance she fathered all gifts upon her gods.
Here we have—
I. The Gifts of Life bestowed in abundance. Israel was greatly blessed with “corn, and wine, and oil,” the fruits of the land. These productions were the foundation of the nation’s wealth and prosperity, and the means by which “silver and gold” were multiplied. Money was superabundant in Solomon’s reign. “The king made silver to be in Jerusalem as stones” (1 Kings 10:27). Wool and flax for clothing and ornament. God bestows necessities and luxuries upon men; honour and position, leaders and genius, upon nations. The earth yields its increase, and corn and wine, bread and water, are spread before us in the wilderness. The sun sheds forth its light and heat, flowers send forth fragrance, and herbs grow for man and beast. All our possessions and enjoyments come from him. Amid ingratitude, atheism, and vice, life springs up ever new, food is given as plentifully to sustain it, and joy and blessings are poured over all existence. God “is kind unto the unthankful and the evil.” He makes the sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.
II. The Gifts of Life received with ingratitude. “She did not know.” She would not know. It was not a mere weakness or infirmity, but wilful ignorance. God had taught her by Moses and the prophets. In their feasts and offerings of first-fruits, in their eventful history and the wonders of providence, the goodness of God was impressed upon their minds. But when the heart is not touched, the memory will fail. The ingratitude of man to man is base. Pitt was soured in temper by the ingratitude which he experienced. “All the eers whom he had made deserted him,” says a writer, “and half of those whom he had served returned his kindness by going over to his enemies.” Divine favours are frozen by human ingratitude and turned into a cause of rebellion. There was no excuse for Israel, and none for men now.
1. Ignorant of the Divine source from whence they come. “I gave her corn.” “God is the giver of every good and perfect gift.” “A man can receive nothing except it be given him from heaven.” But men do not acknowledge God; attribute their comforts to secondary causes, their own skill, their fellow-men, or “good luck.” The ox knows its owner, and the ass his master’s crib, and both are grateful for help: but intelligent beings receive gifts from God, and hoard up for posterity; forget their relation, and pay no dues to their benefactor; but live in known sin and wilful disregard of his love. What tables are spread for us without grace before meat or gratitude after.
2. Ignorant of the benevolent purpose for which they are sent. Grass for cattle, corn and wine to gladden human hearts, flax and wool to clothe and beautify human bodies, and all things richly to enjoy. God has never left “himself without witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.” But we claim his bounties as our own, forget the end for which they are bestowed, and under a formal and false religion, employ them for selfish and unworthy ends. “Despisest thou the riches of his goodness, and forbearance, and long-suffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?”
III. The Gifts of Life basely abused. Israel first made golden calves, then mended or made images of Baal with the gold and silver which God had given them. God’s gifts were turned into human idols, worshipped by men’s own hands, and turned into food for sinful lusts. In modern idolatry God’s blessings are abused and employed to maintain and spread the worship of Baal and Bacchus. Gold and silver, houses and land, children and earthly comforts, take the place of God; all are taken as our special right, attributed to our intellect and industry, and employed in the service of idolatry. In providence God is displaced by fortune or fate; in business talent and tact is all; in pursuit of pleasure and gain, the heart and understanding, the soul and body, are wholly devoted to unworthy objects. “Covetousness is idolatry.” Men are “lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God.” Christians are cautioned against “the worship of angels,” and of some it is said “their god is their belly.” Self-will, excessive thirst of aggrandizement, love of applause, undue veneration of creatures, greedy indulgence in lust and animal appetite, and inordinate attachments of every kind, are dishonouring to God and injurious to man, prove a tendency to depart from God, and display the actual and continual forgetting of God’s claims, who says to each individual person, “I am the Lord thy God.” “Thou shalt have no other god before me.”
IV. The Gifts of Life justly withheld. “Therefore will I return and take away my corn.” These things were God’s, not theirs—they were only stewards in trust. He reserves all power to himself, and retains supreme authority over men. If they do not give him his due, unjustly withhold their gratitude and homage, then he will claim his own and take from them what he bestowed for their welfare. God is the sole proprietor, has incontestable right, and to him we must give an account.
1. Gifts abused will be taken away from men. Ingratitude and sinful appropriation will rob us of enjoyments and necessities of life. Idleness and neglect will forfeit all reward. Take from him that which he hath (Luke 8:18; Luke 19:24; Luke 19:26). Keeping, hiding our talents, and non-employment of our time will bring—(a) Divine denunciation, (b) Divine deprivation, and (c) Divine displeasure.
2. Gifts abused will be taken away from men unexpectedly. “In the time thereof,” and “in the season thereof.” Just when they expect them and when men think they are sure of them. God will blast the harvest when it is ready for reaping. The meat shall be taken from their mouths (Joel 1:16); drunkards will awake and weep (Hosea 2:5; Hosea 2:11); and husbandmen howl. In the fulness of sufficiency men are put into straits (Job 20:22-23); and when they are just about to realize their hopes they will be disappointed. Unseasonable weather, wicked men, and mysterious providences snatch away abused mercies. This punishment is more signal and severe than gradual decay or long-looked for visitation. It is not the work of chance, but a solemn, significant judgment of God which leaves the sinner in want and distress, in shame and utter destitution.
HOMILETIC HINTS AND OUTLINES
Hosea 2:8. Ignorance of God.
1. Negative, inexcusable.
2. Affected, sinful.
3. Wilful, hopeless. “There remaineth no sacrifice if we sin wilfully,” &c.
Ingratitude.
1. Its source, wilful ignorance.
2. Its fruit, (a) forgetfulness of Divine benefits, (b) worship of idols—coarse and refined.
3. Its punishment, withdrawal of all gifts, resulting in poverty and distress. “Were men but sensible of what God doth for them every day and hour, they could not in equity and common ingenuity serve him as they do. He preserveth and provideth for us all; lays us down and takes us up, commanding the best of creatures to cater for us (Hosea 2:21), and to bring us in the best of best for our subsistence (Psalms 8). Every good gift and perfect, temporal, spiritual, and eternal, cometh from the Father of lights (James 1:17), as naturally and as constantly as light doth from the sun, or water from the sea. Let us therefore imitate those lights of heaven and rivers of earth, do all the good we can with those good things, corn, wine, silver and gold, &c., which God hath given us, and then reflect back towards and return all the glory and praise unto the sun of our righteousness and the sea of our salvation. Let us ever send back (as the beams of the moon and stars return to the face of the sun, which gave them their beauty) to, God’s own glorious self the honour of all his gifts, by a fruitful improvement of them and fresh songs of praise” [Trapp]. God manifests great kindness, whereof little notice is taken, and wherein his hand is not seen nor acknowledged [Hutcheson].
When men will not know God as the giver of all their temporal blessings, they shall be compelled to know him as the withholder of them [Fausset]. Those who abuse the mercies God gives them to his dishonour, cannot expect to enjoy them long [Matt. Henry].
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 2
Hosea 2:8-9. Ingratitude. When I consider how the goodness of God is abused and perverted by the greatest part of mankind, I cannot but be of his mind that said, “The greatest miracle in the world is God’s patience and bounty to an ungrateful man.” Oh! what would God not do for his creatures, if thankful, that thus heaps the coals of his mercies upon the heads of his enemies? But think not, sinners, that you shall escape thus. God’s mill goes slow, but it grinds small; the more admirable his patience and bounty now is, the more dreadful and insupportable will that fury be which ariseth out of his abused goodness [Gurnall].