Hos. xiii. 4. Thou shalt know no God but me : for there is no
Saviour beside me.
IN the Holy Scriptures, every kind of argument is urged that is proper to influence the minds of men : sometimes we are persuaded by the terrors of the Lord, and sometimes are allured by his exceeding great and precious promises. A difference is observed towards men differently disposed, and differently cir- cumstanced : "towards some, compassion is exercised"
in all its gentlest forms ; whilst others are " saved with fear, and snatched out of the fire" with a kind of compulsive violence. But it not unfrequently hap- pens, that where the obstinacy of men is such as almost to preclude a hope of prevailing with them, both the kinds of argument are combined, in order, if possible, by either, or by both, to overcome the obdurate soul. Thus, in the passage before us, the prophet, having represented the ten tribes as increas- ingly shameless in their idolatries, declares from God, that they shall pass away like the morning cloud, or early dew, and that, like chaff from a threshing-floor, or smoke from a chimney, they shall be scattered as with a whirlwind over the face of the whole earth3. But still, as though God repented of denouncing so heavy a judgment against them, he addresses them with tender pity ; " Yet I am the Lord thy God from the land of Egypt ; and thou shalt know no god before me ; for there is no Saviour beside me :" that is, " I can never forget the relation which I bear towards thee ; and I am as willing as ever to bestow on thee all the blessings of salvation, if only thou wilt banish from thee those rivals which have provoked me to jealousy."
In these words there are two things to be noticed;
I. The command —
In its primary and literal sense, it refers to the putting away of their molten images which they had made to worship. But the terms used are nearly the same as those by which the first commandment in the Decalogue is expressed ; and therefore we must consider them as extending also to the idolatry of the heart. Indeed, idolatry is, as St. Paul expresses it, " a worshipping and serving of the creature more than the Creator, who is God over all, blessed for everb:" and consequently, we are here forbidden to pay to any creature that regard which is due to God alone, or to make it the chief object of,
1. Our love —
a ver. 2, 3. b Rom. i. 25.
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