They shall walk, &c.— It shall come to pass, that they shall follow the Lord, when he shall roar like a lion; for he shall roar, and the fishes of the sea shall tremble. Houbigant. See Ezekiel 38:20. By the fishes of the sea, are supposed to be meant the people of Egypt and Babylon. But the following seems a better and more consistent translation:—They shall walk after the Lord, who shall roar like a lion: when he shall roar, then the children shall come fluttering from the west. Hosea 11:11. They shall come fluttering as a bird, &c.
The children— It is remarkable, that the expression is neither their children, nor my children, but simply the children. The first would limit the discourse to the natural Israel exclusively; the second would be nearly of the same effect, as it would express such as were already children at the time of the roaring. But the term the children, put nakedly, without either of these epithets, expresses those who were neither of the natural Israel, nor children, that is, worshippers, of the true God, at the time of the roaring, but were roused by that sound, and then became children, that is to say, the adopted children, by natural extraction Gentiles. This and the next verse contain indeed a wonderful prophecy of the promulgation and progress of the Gospel, and the restoration of the race of Israel. The first clause of this 10th verse states generally, that they will return to the Lord. In what follows, the circumstances and progress of the business are described. First, Jehovah will roar—the roaring is unquestionably the sound of the Gospel. Jehovah himself shall roar—the sound shall begin to be uttered by the voice of the incarnate God himself. The first effect shall be, children shall come fluttering from the west; a new race of children—converts of the Gentiles; chiefly from the western quarters of the world, or what the Scriptures call the west; for no part, I think, of Asia Minor, Syria, or Palestine, is reckoned a part of the east in the language of the Old Testament. Afterwards the natural Israel shall hurry from all the regions of their dispersion, and be settled in their own dwellings.
It is to be observed, that the roaring is mentioned twice. It will be most consistent with the style of the prophets, to take this as two roarings; and to refer the hurrying of the children from the west to the first; the hurrying from Egypt and Assyria to the second. The times of the two roarings are the first and second advent. The first brought children from the west; the renewed preaching of the Gospel, at the second, will bring home the Jews. And perhaps this second sounding of the Gospel may be more remarkable even than the first, the roaring of Jehovah in person.
REFLECTIONS.—1st, God puts the people of Israel in mind,
1. Of the grace and mercy that he had shewn them. When Israel was a child, then I loved him, in their weak and helpless state, when first God took them for a people; and called my son out of Egypt, from that house of their prison: and prophetically this declares what should be the case with Christ, God's incarnate Son, to whom, Matthew 2:15 the words are expressly applied, and in and through whom every faithful soul has obtained a deliverance from the bondage of guilt and corruption, infinitely more intolerable than that of Egypt. I taught Ephraim also to go, with all the tenderness and care of the fondest mother; taking them by their arms; giving them his holy law to direct them, and by a pillar and cloud guiding their marches in the trackless wilderness. And thus God still upholds his believing people, teaching them by his word and spirit; carrying them through their trials and temptations, and strengthening their souls for his work and service. I healed them of their diseases and plagues; as he doth the souls of genuine penitents, when wounded by sin, or when they have suffered by spiritual decays. I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love; by every endearing motive, and the powerfully constraining influence of his love shed abroad in their hearts, by which God still draws every penitent sinner to come unto him. I was to them as they that take off the yoke on their jaws; as the husbandman unmuzzles the ox, or looses the yoke from its neck, so had God delivered them from the servitude of Egypt, as he doth his believing people from the bondage of corruption: and I laid meat unto them; the manna and quails wherewith he fed them in the wilderness, the emblems of the better spiritual bread which cometh down from heaven, with which God strengthens and comforts his faithful people in their way through this desart world to the land of eternal rest.
2. Of the base ingratitude with which they had requited him. As they, the prophets of the Lord, called them to their duty, and to return from their sinful backslidings; so they went from them: the more importunately they were solicited, the more obstinate and refractory they grew. They sacrificed unto Baalim, and burnt incense to graven images, the abominable thing against which they were so particularly warned. All God's kindness was thrown away upon them: they knew not that I healed them, but ascribe to their idols all their mercies; and my people are bent to backsliding from me; both under a constant propensity to depart from him, and wilfully set upon their abominations, though nationally his people, which relation aggravated their guilt exceedingly. They refused to return; whether courted or threatened, they persisted in evil: though they called them to the Most High, to leave their idols, and return to the worship of the true God, none at all would exalt him, give him the glory due unto his name; or lift up their prayers to him for mercy, or their hearts from earthly vanities to high and heavenly things. Note; Much pains are often spent to little purpose by God's faithful ministers; yet, though sinners will not hear, God is thereby glorified in leaving them without excuse.
3. Heavy wrath is denounced against them. He shall not return into the land of Egypt, but the Assyrian shall be his king, whose yoke would be so much heavier, that they would wish rather for the task-masters of Egypt again: or so straitly should they be besieged, or so far carried away captives, that they should not be able to send ambassadors to Egypt for assistance. And the sword shall abide on his cities; the destruction shall be long continued, as well as universal; and shall consume his branches, and devour them; the villages and country around, or the inhabitants thereof; because of their own counsels, which were their ruin. Note; Sinners have none to blame but themselves: they choose those ways which necessarily lead to their own perdition.
2nd, We have,
1. The reluctance that a gracious God expresses in giving up the once chosen people of Israel to ruin. How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? &c. Justice might well plead for their total excision, and that, like the cities which were consumed with fire, Deuteronomy 29:23. Israel deserved to be given up to the same terrible vengeance; but mercy pleads for some mitigation or respite, if not for pardon; and God, as a father, with bowels of tenderest compassion, appears most backward to ruin even this rebellious son; and mercy prevails; mine heart is turned within me, my repentings are kindled together. And most astonishing do these compassions of our God appear! Oh, that the ungrateful sinner would for a moment pause, and think of them! Surely they must soften his obdurate heart.
2. God's determination to shew them some mercy. I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger, in blotting out their name from under heaven; I will not return to destroy Ephraim; though I visit them in wrath, I will not enter into the city; though Jerusalem, Samaria, and the other cities, lie waste for a time, their desolations shall not be perpetual, as those of Admah and Zeboim: for I am God, and not man, (human compassions, indeed, would long ago have failed;) the holy One in the midst of thee. Christ is his faithful people's protector: for his sake, who stands in the midst of them to plead for them, they are spared; and, though they deserve punishment, through him they obtain mercy. They shall walk after the Lord, the Messiah their Saviour, their leader and commander, the Captain of their Salvation, receiving an application of the great and precious promises of his Gospel, and yielding to be saved by grace. He shall roar like a lion; his word shall be heard far and near: when he shall roar, then the children shall tremble from the west; the returning penitents, whose hearts shall be deeply affected with the preaching of the Gospel: and this respects the Gentiles, as well as the Jews, the Gospel having chiefly spread that way hitherto. They shall tremble as a bird out of Egypt, and as a dove out of the land of Assyria, flying swiftly, as the timorous dove when pursued by a bird of prey, to the covert of redeeming grace: and I will place them in their houses, saith the Lord; in the church of God below; and all those who persevere to the end in faith and love, in the eternal mansions of glory above. Note; (1.) When we are most discouraged with the sense of our own deserts, we should still remember with whom we have to do: he is God, and not man; and as his majesty is, so is his mercy. (2.) The trembling of the sinner is usually the first symptom of his return to God. (3.) When Christ is our captain, and we walk after him, we cannot fail of victory over every foe.
3. A heavy complaint still lies against Ephraim: he compasseth me about with lies, and the house of Israel with deceit. This seems to be a new discourse, and most properly should begin the next chapter. Their services were hypocritical, and their profession deceitful, and therefore an abhorrence in the sight of the heart-searching God.
4. Judah is highly commended: Judah yet ruleth with God. The two tribes submitted in some measure to that Theocracy which God had established among them, and their kings ruled according to God's law, and received their directions from him in their emergencies; which was their truest honour and highest dignity: and he is faithful with the saints, cleaving to the worship of the sanctuary and treading in the steps of their pious progenitors; and, while they do so, they may assuredly expect that God will be faithful to his promises, and preserve them to his everlasting kingdom. Note; (1.) They who perseveringly make God their king shall be exalted to reign with him. (2.) The faithful will be rewarded with mansions in glory, when the hypocrite and unbeliever shall receive their portion in everlasting burnings.