CRITICAL NOTES.—
Hosea 6:8. Gilead] A city of refuge, the residence of priests, and the centre or metropolis of the hilly region beyond Jordan, yet polluted and the leader of ruin!
Hosea 6:9.] Even priests acted like predatory bands, to murder and surprise travellers on the way. Destruction was met where safety was sought. By consent] Lit. with one shoulder, as oxen yoked together (Zephaniah 3:9). The sanctity of the place and the privileges of the priesthood did not check them in banding together for mischief. Lewdness] Heb. from a root to form deliberate purpose; deliberate crime, enormity (Marg.). “The word literally means, a thing thought of, especially an evil, and so, deliberate wickedness, be thought of and contrived. They did deliberate wickedness, gave themselves to do it, and nothing else” [Pusey],
Hosea 6:10. Horrible thing] Heb. from a word meaning to shudder, be astonished. Whoredom] spiritual and literal singled out as the chief sin—“In another nation, idolatry was error. In Israel, which had the knowledge of the one true God, and had received the law, it was horror” [Pusey].
Hosea 6:11. Harvest] Not a harvest of joy, a promise of ingathering of Israel, but a ripeness for Divine judgments to be inflicted by Assyrians. When] I would, upon their repentance, have turned away the captivity of my people. Judgment might have been averted, but will end in captivity. The Heb. is used of restoration also (Deuteronomy 30:3; Psalms 14:7); hence many take it in this sense, as in harmony with the beginning of the chapter—“a promise of restoring their captivity in due time, which yet imports a sentence of banishment tor sin to be inflicted before” [Hutcheson].
HOMILETICS
A SAD TRANSFORMATION.—Hosea 6:8-11
We have now particular proofs of the charges brought against Israel. Special places, certain persons, and the whole people are faithless and polluted. The best become the worst.
I. Sacred places become polluted with sin. Regarding Gilead as a city of refuge, or the country beyond Jordan, it “is a city of them that work iniquity.” God had hallowed the place, and made it a city of safety; an institution of heaven, designed for special good. But this place of justice and protection, the glory of the land and the centre of distinguished privileges, was polluted with crime. Its inhabitants had stained its name and filled it with blood. Cities are blessed or cursed by the character and conduct of the inhabitants. Wealth and population, genius and prosperity, fade away by vice and debauchery. Great cities may be filled with great sins; exalted to heaven with privileges, they may be cast down to hell for abusing them. Rome and Paris have been by-words, and Nero and Robespierre have left a stain in history. “By the blessing of the upright the city is exalted; but it is overthrown by the mouth of the wicked.”
II. Ministers of religion become abettors of murder. The priests, who should have been examples of virtue, fostered abominable sins and were guilty of murder. It was their duty to save life, but they killed both body and soul. They were—
1. cruel in their designs. They sought to lie in wait and murder pilgrims on their way to the city.
2. Crafty in their designs. They plot “as troops of robbers wait for a man.”
3. Deliberate in their designs. They thought of their schemes, and deliberately adopted and carried them out.
4. Confederate in their designs. “By consent.” They were one in sympathy, agreed in sentiment, and banded together in purpose. They were taken from the lowest of the people, intruders in office, and were a curse to the land. Of all societies of men, none are more vile and mischievous than ministers corrupted by office or evil. The sweetest wine becomes the sourest vinegar, the whitest ivory burnt becomes the blackest coal; so the best men, the noblest institutions, may be transformed into the most disgraceful and criminal. “Her priests have violated my law, and have profaned mine holy things: they have put no difference between the holy and profane.”
III. The noblest design perverted to destruction. The way to the cities of refuge, by God’s command, was to be prepared (Deuteronomy 19:3); clear and kept open without hindrance or danger to fugitives; but it was filled with robbers and tracked with blood. Those who fled for life met with death. What power in the human will and in human conduct to corrupt the ordinances and hinder the designs of God! Means of grace perverted to motives of crime, and sacred places changed to scenes of corruption. The devil gets into the church, and the foulest crimes are committed in the garb of religion and a good name. In Christendom now we see religion made the tool of priests and governments: its sanctions brought to support schemes of aggrandizement and oppression; and plans that display God’s wisdom and benevolence employed to prostrate our nature, to pollute the land, and make it “desolate and a perpetual hissing.”
IV. A chosen people degraded with punishment. All these crimes were done “in the house of Israel,” an elect nation. Whoredom was widespread, and the whole land was defiled.
1. The enormity of their sin was great. “An horrible thing,” enough to make one shudder; “a thing in Israel, at which both the ears of every one that heareth shall tingle.” Ordinary sins are evil, but the sins of Israel were gross abominations. Sins against light and privileges, the warnings of prophets and the judgments of God. Heathen nations could not commit such crimes, the greatness of which can only be estimated by God. But ancient Israel and modern Churches, pre-eminent above other peoples, exchange God for vain idols. Holy heaven is amazed at the monstrous folly of men. “Hath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods? but my people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit. Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be ye horribly afraid; be ye very desolate, saith the Lord.”
2. The punishment of their sin was disgraceful. The people of God were bereft of their glory and defence; carried captives and humbled by a foreign foe. The seed was reaped in an awful “harvest” of punishment by both Ephraim and Judah. God is no respecter of persons—the highest and the lowest, the priest and the peasant, are alike judged for their sins. He makes them “base and contemptible before all the people.” Sin sinks the most exalted to the most degraded. It is a blot in the escutcheon of the mightiest nation which no worldly glory can efface. “Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people.”
HOMILETIC HINTS AND OUTLINES
The substance of these verses may be summed up in few words.
1. Man has a tendency to abuse the best and highest things. This is proved from history, Scripture, and observation.
2. When the best and highest things are abused they become the worst. Moral order and distinctions are confounded. A downward course is begun. Conscience must be quieted, moral feelings be suppressed, and bold extravagance required to cover and defend sin.
3. Abuse of the best and highest things greatly increases the guilt. When men check religious impulse and resist good they go at a faster rate than merely doing wrong. The effect of sin must be measured by the power of moral sensibility. Perfection of guilt and punishment is gained by using the truth and ordinances of God, to do the bidding of selfishness and lust.
I have seen an horrible thing. God discerns sin when covered by craft and counsel, by excuse and ignorance. The smallest sins and the most horrible crimes are detected by him, and will be discovered to the perpetrators. Men may cover their ways and hide their sins, but they cannot prosper.
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 6
Hosea 6:8-11. Best and worst. The best things when abused become the worst: there is no devil like a fallen angel; no enemy to the gospel like an apostate Christian; no hate like the “theological hate;” no war like a religious war; and no corruption like religious corruption. The reasons are not far to seek. The best things are the strongest: they can do most always, most evil when used in an evil way. Bad men know this: Simon the magician was not the only one that has cast a covetous look at Christianity and said, “Give me also this power” [A. J. Morris].