Vers. 3-9.-Hosea's children. Not only was the prophet's marriage to be a sil!:n; the children were to be for signs also. So, afterwards, were Isaiah's sons in Judah (Isa. vii. 3, 14; viii. 3). Hosea's ill-starred children were cursed in the very names which they bore; and each of these was to be ,as a sermon to the nation. It may be that they personally walked for a time in their mother's evil ways; but whether or not, the namos which they received concentrate into a focus Hosea's message of judgment. I. JEZREEL. (Vers. 3~5.) "Jezreel" w'as the name of the great plain in the heart of the northern kingdom which was the glory of Palestine for its beauty and richness, and which has been in all ages e. battle-field of nations. It was also the name of the fair city which stood near the eastern end of the plain, where Ahab had his ivory palace, and where Jezebel and he committed so many infamous murders. Now, llosea's firstborn was called" Jezreol:" 1. To recall the blood spilt there, whic,\ was still crying for vengeance. (Ver. 4.) 'fhis must mean the blood shed by Ahab and Jezebel-the murder of Na.both and his sons, and the massacre of the Lord's prophets. But it probably includes also the revolting cruelties of Jehu, by which he exterminated the whole family of Ahab. Divine retributiou may slumber for mauy generations; but it will awake some day, and do its dreadful work. Jehu had destroyed the house of Ahab in obedience to a Divine commant.l, and God had commended him fur it (2 Kings x. 30), But, while his act was in accordance with bis commission, his motive was no~. Ho ha!.l complied with t!io will of God ouly in so far as ho judged that 20 TllE BOOK OF HOSEA, [OH, I.1-11,
ccm1pliancc would a,)vanoo his own J)Oliti~al ends. His "zeal for the Lord" (2 Kings x. 16) was only R thlll. veneer overlaying his zeal for Jehu. So, although he overturned the alt.ar of B11&l, he clave to the calves of Jeroboam. Calvin refers here to Heury VIII, of_Englnnd ~ having been n modem Jehu. Henry broke with the pope, not that he nnght rcpudrnte the errors of the papacy, but because he was determined to divorce Queen Ca: hcrinc._ He s~ppressed the monasteries, not because they were dens of vice, but 1hat he nn<rht dell\'er a blow at the papal power, and at the same time fill his own <'offers with the treasures of the monks. But, again, llo~ea'd firstborn was called ",1 ezrcel:" 2. To sttggest that Israel was about to be scattei·ed by God /01· its sins. (Vers. 4, 5.) "Jezrcel" in Hebrew sounds and spells like "Israel;" and the play of snuud suggests the thought that the nation which had "seen God," and been a" prince that prevailed with God," was to become" J ezn'Cl" in the sense of heing" God-scattered" nrnong the heathen. 'l'he impending ruin of Jehu's dynasty was to be the beginnina of the end. For althongh the northern kingdom continued for half a century after': wards, it was constantly distressed with civil war, or distracted with revolution and nnar<'h:,, until at last Assyria came and subverted it altogether. Not only so, but lsracl "·as to lose its prowess and meet its overthrow" in the valley of Jezreel" its~lf, hitherto the thcntre of its military glory. That smiling plain had been to Israel what Marathon was to Greece, or what Bannockburn is to Scotland. Deborah and Barak, Gideon, Saul, Ahab, bad all gained great victories there. Yet "in the valley of Jezreel" "the bow of Israel," which still seemed so strong, was to be irreparably broken. Hosea himself lived to witness, at least in part, the fulfilment of this oracle (eh. x. 14). And illustrations may be readily multiplied from history of how God can break the pride of an ungodly nation at the innermost shrine of its glory. He did so with Nineveh, with Babylon, with Tyre. He did so again and again at Jerusalem. He did fO a few years ago in France, when the victorious German army entered Paris by the Arc de 'l'riompbe, and when King William of Prussia was crowned the first Emperor of United Germany in the palace of Versailles. II. Lo-RURiliAR. (Vers. 6, 7.) This second child of Hosea. and Gomer was a daughter. Her name, meaning "Not-pitied," brought a still sadder message to the guilty nation than the name" Jezreel" did. 'l'o be unpitied by God is a worse calamity than even to be" God-scattered." Hitherto Jehovah had at least always compassionated his erring children. And does not the whole of revelation tell us that the heart of God yearns with infinite tenderness over frail, suffering humanity? "Can a woman forget her sucking child? ... Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee." Why, ther:, was Israel called "Lo-ruhamah "'t Not because the Divine heart had changed, but simply becau.se she herself insisted upon not being "his own." She persistently " would none of" him. And so, at last, there was nothing for it but to allow her to. "eat of the fruit of her own way.'' Hosea's daughter was to be a living witness by her name that the Divine patience Wal; now at length exhausted. And the presage of this name would be fulfilled in the total and irremediable deportation of the ten tribes into Assyria, In case, moreover, the people should cling to any false hope, the opposite lot of the kinadom of Judah is referred to (ver. 7) by way of contrast. Judah was not so tho;oughly and hopelessly dissolute al; Israel The southern kingdo_m had not deserted the temple and the sacritices. When it was spiriLually aL the worst, 1t possessed at lea~t "a very 8mall remnant." So Judah would receive chastisement rather than judgment. And God would "save" Judah, although not "by bow, nor by sword." There would soon lie tbe marvellous deliverance from Sennacherib. Then, after the seventy years' exile, the return from Babylon. And, last of all, in the fulness of t~e time, the spiritual salvation of Jesus Christ. But all the while, alas! the northern kmgdom, as such, was to be unsaved. For Ephraim's apostasy had boon unanimous and universal. Not one of its kings was a godly ruan. And the people would not hearken to God's prophets, but settled down in confirmed wickedness and impenitence. So now at length there was no refuge fur Israel even in the compassion of God itself. ill. Lo-uuu. (Vera. 8, 9.) The name of this third child, meaning "Not-my- peopk," presaged still worse disaster_ tha1;1 either of the preceding. 'fhe t~ird i~stalment of judgment would plunge the nation mt~ _the l~we~t depth of all. 'lhe withdrawal of the Divine favour could only lead to posltlve reJect10n. What though the Jews kept \l()asting that they were the Lord'11 chosen people, when "by their worl\s they denied, 'I'HE BOOK OF llOSE11. 21