him" I The life of the naUon was such as at length to allow him no alteruaUve but to dcclnro tho.t he would not be their God. Jehovah mUBt disRolve his covenant relation to them. Ho is compelled to disown and disinherit them. Henceforth they are to bo no longer n sacred poople; they o.re to differ in nothing from the profane Gentiles. A drendfol <loom I Yet still that nation is finally cut off, and that soul is lost for ever, to whom God says these withering, Woeful words (ver. 9), "I will not be yours." CoNCLUSION. If we can conceive what a dreadful trial it must have been to Hosea to give his children these mystic names, so ominous of woe, we shall be enahled in aome measure, as ho was, to sympathize with the Lord's sorrow for those in his human family who live and die in obdurate impenitence, and over whom his wailing, despairing lament is," How often I would have gathered you together, but ye would not! "-C. J. Ver. 10-ch. ii. 1.-The curse reversed. The "yet" with which this passage opens is a blessed yet. It introduces snddenly an announcement of salvation for Israel. Hosea cannot think of everything as being always for the worst. His children are not to be living witnesses merely of approaching vengeance. So the prophet's sobs of aaony are stilled for a little, to give place to the inspiring strains of Messianic promise. He points out three blessings which lie on the other side of the dreadful doom of the northern kingdom. I. REALIZATION OF THE COVENANT PROMISE. (Ver. 10.) Some one might naturally ask the question-If Israel is to be "scattered," "unpitied," and "rejected," what is to become of the promises given to Abraham and the fathers of the Hebrew race (Gen. xxii. 17 ; xxxii. 12)? The prophet replies that these will be in no wise cancelled by the rejection of the ten tribes. The people of the northern kingdom a.re to be dispersed among the nations ; but God's purpose is to gather his Church from the Gentile world as well as from the Jewish. 'l'he promises given to Abraham were not so much national as spiritual. While, therefore, the symbolic one hundred and forty-four thousand shall be " sea.led," there shall stand with them before the throne the " great multitude, which no man could number" (Rev. vii. 4, 9). II. RECOVERY OF THE NATIONAL UNITY. (Ver. 11.) In the past there had always been more or less of enmity between Judah and Israel. Long before the disruption of the kingdom, Ephraim "envied n Judah. And for two hundred years now these tribes had also been sundered politically. But, in the good time coming, the twelve tribes shall again become one rod in the hand of the Lord (Ezek. x.x.xvii. 16, 17). The oracle before us implies, further, that prior to this reunion Judah also shall have been rejected and carried into exile for its sins, To whom are we to refer this notable prophecy of the " one head"? 1. It refers typically to Zerubbabel, the head of the tribe of Judah at the return from the exile. Among those who weLt up with him were, at least, a few belonging to the ten tribes; so that a partial miniature of this union was presented in the return from Babylon. 2. It refers antitypically to Jesus <Jhrist, the "One Head" of redeemed humanity. The literal Judah and Israel shall be reunited in him, along with the spiritual Israel of the whole Gentile Church. He receives the appointment, of course, from his Father; but also from his people, in the sense tbat they accept and rejoice iu it. The lesson here is that only in the gospel of Christ is to be found the true basis of the brotherhood of the human race. 'l'he name of Jesus is the one a.deq ua.te symbol of life and liberty. Only his body, the Church, can communicate to the worki the blessings of the idea.I republic-liberty, equality, fraternity. Union among me11 can only spring from their common union with God. III. HESTORATION TO THE Drvn."E FAVOUR. In the names of Hosea's three children God had denounced woe upon Israel. But these very names may also be understood so that they shall convey an assurance of mercy and redemption. It may be, indeed, that after following for a sea.son in the evil ways of their mother Gomer, the three young people were themselves converted, and thus became qualified in character to illustrate their father's prophetic message on its side of promise. 1. "Jezreel" will mean "God sows." (Ver. 11.) 'l'his name shall be purified from its baser associations, and be understood again in accordance with its richest meaning. Originally sug~estive of the beauty and fertility of the plain of Esdraelon, ib application shall be extended, iu the ~piritual aen.:;e, to the whole of l'akstine and of the world (Isa. xxx v. l, 2). Wb.eu Gnd sowi THE BOOK OF HOSEA, [en. t.1-11.
t lie re i6 £<Ure to be a glorious harvest; hence the Mcssi,mlc promise, "Grent shnll be the tiny of J ezreel." 2. "Not-my-'f)eopl,e '' wul beoo'IIUl "My people." (Ver. 10 and eh. II. 1.) In the good time coming, the men of Israel are to salute one another no longer as "Lo-ammi;" but, joyfully dropping the negative, as "Amrnl," i.e. those whom the Lord has a~ain called to be his people. This name anticipates '' tbe adoption or sons" under the New Testament. Hence we :6.nd the Apostle Poter applying this passage to the Jews of the disper~ion (1 Pet. ii. 10); and the Apostle Paul to the reception of the Gentiles, in opposition to r.he Jews (Hom. ix. 25, 26). The words of the latter are not merely an ingenious adaptation of the prophecy to the heathen nations; they are an argument based upon the fundamental thought of it. Israel, through its apostasy, had fallen from the covenant o[ grace, and had taken its place spiritually as po.rt of t4~ Gentile world, which served dead idols. So the re-adoption of Israel carried, with it the adoption also of the Gentiles as the spiritual children of God. 3. "Not-pitied" will beco'IIUl "Pitied." (Ver. 1.) The word" Ruhamah" will be applied to the daughters of the people, to express the climax of the Divine love. Israel is ago.in to be the,object. of the Lord's tender and yearning affection. On the other side of all the sin and doom Hosea discerns the sovereignty of Jehovah's compassion and loving-kindness, and he calls upon the people rapturously to celebrate it. CONCLUSION. Row great the encouragement which these three verses afford to any or us who feel that we have, in our own lives, grievously departed from the living God ! We, in this age, should understand more clea:dy than even Hosea did the unspeakable mercy of Jehovah. The prophet says nothing, for example, about thll, ground or method of the Divin~ forgiveness. But God has. ,unfolded this '' in these last days" in speaking "unro us by his Son" (Heb. i. 2). The Lord Jesus Christ has come as the Prophet of the Church to emphasize and carry forward Hosea.'s messa.g~ "Jczreel," "Ammi," "Rubamah."-C. J.