The Pulpit Commentary — Hosea — Section 17

HOMILETICS. V~rs. l--3.-77ie sj,n ~f Israel, ~harply reprO'Ved. The great sin, the root-sin we may call 1t, of Israel at this time was idolatry. But that sin was not alone ; it was a.<"•re.- ,-e.ted, as usual, by accompanying abominations. All alona, from the period ofeothe disruption, idolatry had been their besetting sin. The oft-repeated statement that Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, "ma.de Israel to sin" has a special significance in this regard. As long as Jerusalem remained the gathering-place of the tribes, and Solomon's temple remained the national sanctuary, Judah must have retained the supremacy, To undermine that supremacy, or rather to transfer it to Israel, required a stroke of bold, unscrupulous policy; but the audacity, or rather godlessness, of Jeroboam was quite equal to the occasion. Under pretence of facilitating the religious service of his subjects, 11s though it was too much for them to go up to Jerumlem, but in reality to prevent the people turning again in their allegiance to the dynasty of David, he changed the place of religious worship, appointing Dan and Bethel e.t the northern and southern extremities of his kingdom-the one on the Syrian and the other on the Judaic frontier. But this change of place necessitated other changes in keeping therewith. The mode of worship had to be changed from that of the true God to that of the calves, sym- bolical representations of the true God. With such symbolic representation of Deity he had, no doubt, become familiar in Egypt, as previously Aaron and the Israelites had carried it with them on their emancipation from that land. There was something very iusidious in this change; it was only a half-measure, but a preparation for the whole. lt was not the introduction of new gods, such as Baal and Ashtaroth, the dual deities of Phcenicia, of which sin Ahab was guilty; it was the worship of Jehovah under an external form. It was not the violation, at least directly, of the first commandment, which forbids the having of other gods; it was the transgression of the second, which condemns the me.king a graven image; so that Stanley ·says of Jeroboam that" to keep the first commandment he broke the second." The people took far too kindly to the change, and clung to it with fatal tenacity for two hundred years, subsequently even iri the time of the Prophet Hosea, as we learn from several passages in t_his very book the calves were still objects of idolatrous worship. In our study of these ve~ses we hav'! fur c.onsideration the following. . L THE PERSON OF THE PBOPBET. He introduces himself to us by his name and surname, or patronymic. His name, Hosea or Saviour, is one of good omen and happy augury, at least in his co.Be; his patronymic of Ben-Beeri, "son of my well," bas also a pleasiug significance of its own. By the former we are reminded of that Saviour to_ whom the prophet pointed and to whom he bore his testimocy, and thus became an mstru- ment of salvation; while the surname may call to mind him who is the Well-spring of salvation and the Fountain of Jiving water, according to his own words," Whosoever drinketl.J of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I Ehall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life." 01· if the name have reference to the function of the prophet himself, it may denote his pouring out the water of life from the Divine Fountain of life. II. THE POWER WI'l'H WHICH HE WAS IN,EsTED. This, of course, touches on his Divine commission, and the corresponding inspiration which qualified him for:the proper execu~ t10n of that commission. Like the apostles in after times, he claims to hold .his corn~ mission 1rom God, and to be charged with the commands of God. '.1.'hus in Luke iii. 2 we read that "the word of God came unto John the son of Zacharias in the wilder- ness;" and in Gal. i. l we find the apostle of the Gentiles speaking of his commission in the followin" terms: "Paui, a1.t apostle, not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God th:' Father, who raised him from the dead." 'l'hus in the case of Paul, his apostolic amhurit,v was not from (ci,,i) men, as the source of that authority by whom it io conforrl.!d, nur by (6,A) man, foe single representative of any body of men, as the  Oft, l, 1--11,] THE BOOK OF HOSEA. 11