CRITICAL NOTES.—
Hosea 7:14. Cried] in anguish, not in penitence. Howled] in deep affliction and despair. Assemble] Crowd together in idol temple to deprecate famine and depart from God. Rebel] Lit. withdraw themselves. Against] From me; they cast off all allegiance to God.
HOMILETICS
THE HOWLING OF DISTRESS.—Hosea 7:14
If the sinner will not take warning, but madly rush on, he must take the consequence of his folly. But when sorrow and punishment come upon him, he frets and cries to God in distress. When Israel suffered, they wept for their sins. God reproves them; they should have turned to him before. It is often too late to repent when the deed is done.
I. Men are often in great distress. Suffering of some kind we cannot avoid; it is incident to our mortal state. The ills that flesh is heir to are many. But sin brings suffering; neglect of Divine warnings brings Divine chastisement.
1. Men often lack the necessities of life. “Corn and wine” are not always given, often in justice withheld, and then famine results. The Irish famine through failure of potatoes created great distress. The luxuries and the necessities are taken away to humble our pride, punish our sin, and teach us dependence upon God. “The Lord gave” is the language of Scripture; that of atheism and pride, “My own hand hath gotten me this wealth” (Deuteronomy 8:17). Heathens even acknowledged God as “the Giver of good things.” He has the right to withdraw at his pleasure. God’s hand must be seen in losses as well as gains. “The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away.”
2. Men are often put on beds of affliction. “They howled upon their beds.” Active energetic persons are confined to their habitations, thrown helpless on their beds, and led to cry for mercy. Many have wearisome nights and days; bitter pains and sorrows; then they cry for mercy in sickness, which they despised in health. Their punishment is greater than they can bear. A sick bed is a place of trial and a school of discipline.
II. Men cry to God in great distress. In prosperity and freedom they are right enough. Even beasts do not utter their cry when they have food. But how natural to feel and complain under severe suffering! It is not palatable to reap the reward of our own doings. Hence—
1. Men cry, but it is not the cry of penitence. It is the howling of anguish; the cry of despair; mere noise without spiritual feeling.
2. They cry to God. Like the atheist on the Ægean Sea, they may forget or ridicule the idea of God in calm and sunshine. When the storms come they change their creed and cry to their God. Men may live without God, but they never want to suffer or die without him. “Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble.”
3. Their cry is insincere. (a) It is not from the heart. “They have not cried unto me with their heart.” Their tears were wrung from them on account of distress and not sin. Their hearts were not set on God, and they could not pray unto him. The howling of the ancient heathen or the modern Indian is not true devotion. The prayer from a sense of pain and want is not the prayer of “a broken and contrite spirit,” which is acceptable to God.
Pleads he in earnest? look upon his face:
His eyes do drop no tears, his prayers are in jest;
His words come from his mouth, ours from our breast:
He prays but faintly, and would be denied:
We pray with heart and soul, and all beside.
(b) Their cry is public clamour. “They assemble themselves,” gather tumultuously together, to join in stormy debate or clamour to their gods. They thought more of corn and wine than pardon of sin and peace with God. Men are more anxious for the body than the soul, and when deprived of the blessings of this life fret and murmur against God.
4. Their cry ended in rebellion. “They rebel against me,” turn away from God, and then turn round to insult him to his face. This proved the insincerity of their prayer. Sanctified afflictions improve and wean from the world; unsanctified afflictions harden and lead to ungodliness. The iron when heated by the fire is soft and flexible, but afterwards goes hard and cold. When God slays men, then they seek him, return and inquire early after him. When restored they forget their vows and prayers, and live in estrangement from him. “For all this they sinned still, and believed not for his wondrous works” (Psalms 78:32; Psalms 78:34).
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 7
Hosea 7:14. Cried. Many have been greatly afflicted and cried to God; been humbled, yet not made humble; humbled by force in their outward condition, but not humbled in their inward temper. “But when the sickness has passed away, the sweetness of the forbidden fruit again comes to mind; and as the dog returneth to his vomit,”—to the food which had caused his sickness,—“so a fool returneth to his folly” [Bridge].