CRITICAL NOTES.—
Hosea 8:2. We] Heb. joins Israel with the last clause, “We know thee, we Israel,” a plea of descent to move God to mercy; but hypocrisy, the cry of fear and not love. Dead knowledge cannot deliver.
Hosea 8:3. Cast off] implies dislike, the breaking of relative bonds. Good] (tob) may include God, the supremely good, and all the blessings of salvation. Pursue] in retribution for rejecting God.
Hosea 8:4. Kings] The self-authorized schism from the house of David. All their princes not from God. Many and violent were the usurpations and dethronements. Knew] Approved (Psalms 1:6; Matthew 25:12). Idols] and calf-worship a further sin. They] i.e. the gold and silver, as Hosea 8:6 [Keil]. Lit. that he may be cut off. The whole people destroyed [Pusey]. Though forewarned, yet heedless (Jeremiah 7:15; Jeremiah 44:8).
Hosea 8:5. Cast off] disgusts. Israel had cast off God; calf-worship would cast off them or be the means of God casting them off. How long] Lit. how long will they not be able innocency to endure (cf. Isaiah 1:14; Psalms 101:5); they were incapable of purity before God (Jeremiah 19:4).
VAIN RELIGION.—Hosea 8:2
Israel in the hour of need call upon God, plead their knowledge of him as the covenant people, and depend upon help for the sake of their relationship to him God denies this claim, and will reject all who honour him with their lips merely, when their hearts are far from him. Knowledge without practice is all in vain. God will not own those who only profess, who cry, “My God,” and do not forsake iniquity.
I. The religion of natural descent. “We Israel,” the seed of Jacob, who was called Israel. This was the boast of the Jews. “We be Abraham’s seed.” Natural relationship and noble birth avail nothing before God. Yet men boast of their ancestry and pious parents, and trust God will regard them on that account. God has a peerage of his own. The grace of God can create children of Abraham from stones of the wilderness: the outcasts and the heathen. “Whose son art thou” spiritually? The son of God, or the son of the Devil? “He is a Jew which is one inwardly.”
II. The religion of formalism. “My God, we know thee.” Knowledge is a necessity, and may be acquired by all. The knowledge of God is within the reach of every one. There is no excuse for ignorance of God. But many profess and use the name of God who do not know him; orthodox in their creed, but sinful in their life. “They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him.” They cry, “Lord, Lord,” in their devotions, but in their lives are sinful and iniquitous. The religion of many is mere profession and words; a matter of form and ceremony. We as a nation say, “My God,” boast of our morality and knowledge, build temples to God and swear by his altar; but our conduct contradicts our profession. To know God’s will and do it not involves greater punishment; to possess great advantages and not to use them brings greater responsibility at the judgment-day. “Many,” presumptuously boasting of their profession and work, “will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?”
III. The religion of merit. The spirit of the text is a spirit of pride and superior merit. We are Israel and we know thee, and have therefore a claim to thy mercy. God answers the plea in Hosea 8:3. Israel indeed! then why cast off good, and sin against me! You have no plea to urge and no merit to secure my favour. It was a plea of hypocrisy and fear. There is a fearful tendency in men to cling to good works, and hope to merit Divine mercy through religious duties. They mention benevolent deeds, devotional forms, and social morality, in hope of procuring God’s favour. The Papist repeats his prayers, counts his beads, and makes his stated confessions, and feels that he is at peace with his Maker. The Protestant paces the round of religious duties in self-righteousness and pride, and soothes his soul with the hope of heaven. Merit we have none. The most holy and devout only do their duty. There are no works of supererogation. Salvation is of grace, not by works, lest any man should boast.
Therefore, Jew,
Though justice be thy plea, consider this,—
That in the course of justice none of us
Should see salvation: we do pray for mercy,
And that same prayer doth teach us all to render
The deeds of mercy.
FORSAKING GOOD AND PURSUING EVIL, THE SUREST WAY TO RUIN.—Hosea 8:3-5
These words declare the true position of Israel. They were only Israel in name, and not in reality. They had cast off God, and with him everything good. They set up their own kings and institutions, did not seek to please, and were therefore disowned of God. Like sinners now, they pursued ways, the ends of which were death, and were so infatuated in their folly, that they seemed to act with a view to be “cut off” and utterly rejected.
I. The abandonment of good. “Israel hath cast off the thing that is good.”
1. God, the chief good, was cast off. He was forgotten in his law, resisted in his demands, and forsaken in his worship. A thing cast off indicates supreme contempt, utter abhorrence. We neither think of it nor care for it. This casting off of God—(a) Is most unreasonable. It is to forget our highest interests and wound our own souls; to offend our best friend, and involve ourselves in the greatest misery, (b) Is most ungrateful. “Is not God thy father that hath made thee?” Should we, then, despise a father’s love and reject our greatest benefactor? “Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord hath spoken. I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.”
2. All good was cast off. It is good to draw near to God (Psalms 73:28), and is best for us to do so, and therefore perilous to forsake God. It is our honour, peace, safety, and riches to love and worship him. Those who are far from him, those who reject him, cast off all that is good. They despise good in this world and in that which is to come. How sad the condition when men say, “Depart from us; for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways. What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? Who is the Lord, that we should obey his voice?”
II. Evil pursued. Forsaking God opens up the way to the pursuit of evil. Spiritual good is the only safeguard of the soul. Cast off this, and you open the way for the ravages of sin. Israel had committed two evils.
1. They were guilty of civil apostasy. In founding the kingdom by Jeroboam, and in successive rule, they had set up kings without Divine authority (1 Kings 11:27-40). They rebelled against the royal house of David, encouraged successful conspiracies, and sought their own selfish ends. Men now in family affairs, national politics, and religious life, set up their own and consult not God’s will. They do not acknowledge God in all their ways; they act without his license and approval. As they begin, so they continue. They made and removed princes, as the Roman armies did emperors of old. In the “vicissitudes of families” and nations we have the rise and the fall of the mighty; the misfortunes of all who live and rule without God. Self-will will ever bring self-destruction. But God, whose power we cannot resist, and whose wisdom we should not dispute, will accomplish his own will in the affairs of men.
2. They were guilty of religious apostasy. “Of their silver and their gold have they made them idols.”
1. This idolatry was encouraged by nobility. The kings and princes whom they set up patronized their customs and pleased their minds. They were ambitious in their aims, thought themselves absolute and free in their rule, and sought to gratify their own lusts.
2. This idolatry was supported by wealth. The gold and silver which God gave were devoted to the making of the calves or the support of their worship. One sinful change brings another. Civil rebellion must be upheld by ecclesiastical defection. Usurp the throne of men, and the next step is to set up idols on the throne of God. Withhold talents and wealth from God, or be niggardly in maintaining the true, and you will be lavish in upholding a false religion and a selfish scheme. Men employ their wealth against God; are constantly setting up their own kings, casting off Jehovah, and ungratefully abusing the gifts of his providence and grace.
III. Certain ruin results. The course men pursue will determine their fate. Fallen angels cast off allegiance to God, and were driven from him. Many devout men, once true worshippers of God, have fallen into sin and idolatry. The gods you make will govern your life, fashion your character, and determine your destiny. Forsake all good and cast off God, you imperil your soul. Such conduct is ruinous and most destructive, attracts God’s vengeance, and brings down his wrath upon the sinner. If they forsake him he will turn his back upon them, and “woe unto them when I depart from them.” “Woe” in trial and distress, “woe” in the hour of death, “woe” in the eternal world. “Woe unto the wicked, for it will be ill with them.”
1. This is the fulfilment of God’s word. God denounced a curse upon them if they forsook him (Deuteronomy 28:15; Deuteronomy 28:25).
2. This is the natural retribution of Divine providence. All the idols of men—wealth, ambition, and beauty—will fail them in the hour of need. They will be “cast off” by the gods in whom they trusted. “Thy calf, O Samaria, hath cast thee off.” But “the Lord will not cast off his faithful people, neither will he forsake his inheritance.”
HOMILETIC HINTS AND OUTLINES
Hosea 8:2. Cry, My God. Men are ready enough to cry to God in affliction, when they forget him in health. Trouble drives the stoutest sinners and the most corrupt Church to prayer. “But religion, which is the best armour, is the worst cloak; and will serve hypocrites as the disguise Ahab put on, and perished” [Trapp].
Hosea 8:3. Casting off God. First, the good God, who is good, original, universal, all-sufficient and satisfactory, proportionate and fitting to our soul. He both is good and doeth good (Psalms 119:68), and that both naturally, abundantly, freely, and constantly (Psalms 86:5). Israel cast, or rather kicked him off, as the word signifieth. So do all gross hypocrites; they are rank atheists, practical atheists, though professed Christians. Secondly, they reject Christ as a Sovereign, though content to have him a Saviour. They will not submit to the laws of his kingdom, nor receive him in all his offices and efficacies. Thirdly, hypocrites reject the good Spirit of God, the fruit whereof is all godliness, righteousness, and truth (Ephesians 5:9). When God striveth with them, by yielding to Satan’s suggestions they grieve that Spirit, by grieving resist him, and by resisting quench him, and by quenching him oppose him maliciously and do despite unto him, and so cast themselves into the punishing hands of the living God (Hebrews 10:29; Hebrews 10:31). Lastly, they cast off the good word and true worship of God; those right judgments, true laws, good statutes and commandments (Nehemiah 9:13); they put the promises far from them, and judge themselves unworthy of eternal life (Acts 13:46); they hate instruction, and cast God’s words behind them (Psalms 50:17). In a word, “he hath left off to be wise, and to do good; he setteth himself in a way that is not good; he abhorreth not evil” (Psalms 36:3-4) [Trapp].
I. The thing cast off—“Good,”—God, Christian worship, the Scripture. Despising them, throwing them away as worthless, putting them out of sight as obnoxious. Many boasters of the law did this practically. In these days many cannot endure practical duty and responsibility, contemptuously treat and despise the law of God, as Moses indignantly dashed it on the ground. II. The spirit indicated.
1. Pride.
2. Contempt of Divine authority.
3. Indifference to Divine truth.
4. Atheism of heart.
5. Deadness of conscience and all moral feeling. III. What this leads to. Sooner or later it leads to
(1) open transgression, and
(2) outward rejection. If men cast away the thing that is good there is no wonder when evils pursue and overthrow them (Psalms 140:11; Proverbs 5:14).
When men once begin to turn their back on their own happiness and on the way of God, they will still grow more averse from it, till they become to abominate and abhor it; and this fills up the measure of their iniquity. God will not let sin thrive in their hands, but will send on judgments, and let them feel their loss in their strokes who would not see their prejudice in forsaking what was good [Hutcheson].
Hosea 8:4. Set up kings. Such were all their kings except Jehu and his house. During 253 years, for which the kingdom of Israel lasted, eighteen kings reigned over it out of ten different families, and no family came to a close, save by a violent death. The like self-will and independence closed the existence of the Jewish people [Pusey].
In the government of nations and the choice of rulers, in family duties and in individual life, God should be consulted and pleased. For he can put down what we set up, and set up what we put down.
Hosea 8:5. Cast thee off. Rejected by one’s own God, disappointed in one’s own choice! If Samaria had been firm and faithful to the God of Israel it would have been of great service, a powerful help in need; but the calf was a broken reed, a miserable comforter. So this will ever be the case. Beauty and fame may fade like flowers. Riches take unto themselves wings and fly away. Idols will be shivered to pieces, and the men who trusted on them disappointed for ever. All fail and nothing abides, have God, the only true and permanent good.
“O Cromwell, Cromwell,
Had I but served my God with half the zeal
I served my king, he would not in mine age
Have left me naked to mine enemies.”
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 8
Hosea 8:2. Hope. There are few men, even among the most worldly, who do not expect to be converted before they die; but it is a selfish, mean, sordid conversion they want—just to escape hell and to secure heaven. They desire just experience enough to make a key to turn the lock of the gate of the celestial city. They wish “a hope,” just as men get a title to an estate. No matter whether they improve the property or not, if they have the title safe. A “hope” to them is like a passport, which one keeps quietly in his pocket till the time for the journey, and then produces it [Beecher].
Hosea 8:3-4. Casting off good. When children get high notions and despise home, when they throw off parental authority and restraint, they become wayward and self-willed; make the path of life difficult, which their parents had pioneered and made easy. So one who casts off the fear of God and sets up his own, or the authority of others, insults his Maker and injures himself, makes his future miserable, and may be cast off himself at last.