The Pulpit Commentary — Hosea — Section 56

So great is the mercy of God, that if she lent an ear to the pl~adings of her children 0rphaned through her misconduct, and put away her whoredoms or defilements with many lovers, and her adulteries or departures from her rightful Husband and Lord she might hope for restor~t)on. Th1)s ~od_deals wi~h sinners in general, if they will 'only he.arken to the admomt1ons and mvitat10ns of his Word, and put away from them the objects, one or many, of their sinful attachment, which withdraw their affeotion from him who is their true llnd pr0per Object. There is a practiral comment by Matthew Henry <ln the close of th!s 'l'e~e ~-hich apprars to us well worth quoting. He says," Every smful _c0~rse persisted m 1s an _adulterous departu_re from God; and_ here we may see what 1t 1s truly to repent of 1t and turn from 1t. (1) True penitents will forsake hot.h open sins and secret sins; will put away, not only the whoredoms that lie in sight, but tbose that lie in secret between their breiuts-the sin that is rolled under the tongue as a sweet morsel. (2) They will both avoid the outward occasions of sin and mortify the inward disposition to it." III. Pm.'1SHME1''T THREATENED. The punishment threatened in case of impenitence consists of several particulars. 1. There is destitution of the extremest kind. Israel would be s~ripped of all th~ favours, temporal and spiritual, which God had bestowed, and be so situated that she could not help herself. The idea is more fully developed by Ezekiel, who in eh. xvi. presents us with a most pitiable picture-that of an infant exposed, neglected, nude, acd helpless: "As for thy nativity, in the day thou wast born thy narnl was not cut, neither wast thou washed in water to supple thee; thou was not salted at all, nor swaddled at all. None eye pitied thee, to do !Lny of these unto thee; but thon wast cast out in the open field, to the loathing of thy person, in the day that thou wast born." 2. Next to destitution is desolation. In this particular the representation is that of a wilderness and a dry land, or rather of a traveller in such a district. The nature of the wilderness or of the way through it is easily inferred from other Scriptures; thus we read of Israel's departure from Horeb: "We went through all that great and terrible wilderness; " again it is written, " He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilc!erness." A traveller, in journeying through that waste and howling and terrible wilderness, would meet with many a rough road, many a rugged way, many a rocky ascent, many an uncultivated waste, many a harsh sound, many a scaresome sight, many a tangled spot, many a thorny place, many a toil, aod many a trial. Travellers passicg through such a scene of desolation are said to wander "in the wilderness in a solitary way." 3. The dangers of the wilderness are manifold. There is the place of lions' dens, and of the mountains of the leo1Jards. There, too, the Israelites of old encountered the fiP,ry serpents that infested it. For e. time they bad been restrained, but afterwards they were uncon- trolled, and even commissioned to chastise the erring Israelites. 4. Death itself is included ic the threatened punishment: "And slay her with thirst.'' There is no water to cleanse, no thirst-satisfying fountain, no life-giving spring. Of wayfarers in such a region it is written," They were hungry and thirsty; their soul fainted in them." IV. POSTERITY INVOLVED IN THE THREATENED PUNISHMENT. Therepetitionof"lest" at the beginning of ver. 4 is needed to make the meaning plain and carry on the con- nection. Particular members of a Church or nation too often share the sins of the general body or rulers of the people; so too children, frequently following in the foot- steps of godless parents, suffer by the sad heritage of those parents' guilt; for God "visits the sins of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation of them that hate him." It has been well said that "God visits the sins of the parents upon the children until the entailed curse be cut off by repentance." V. PERSISTENCE IN BIN. The harlotry acd flhameful conduct of the libidinous woman, who represents Israel in this passage, evidence the greatest perversity. In spire of warnings ani threatenings, in spite of ectreaties and exhortations, and in spite ol i~ducements and invitations, Israel persists in her iniquitous idolatry and perseveres in her shameless conduct. Like an abandoned woman, who has renounced all the instinctive modesty of womanhood, and who, instead of waiting for the addresses of paramours, actually t.'lkes the initiative, and pursues them with her unwomanly appeals, Israel goes after her lovers, that is, her idols, or, as some think, her idolatrous allies. We may not, however, overlook the fact that, besides the gross idolatry of Israel, there is e. spiritual idolatry, to which all are exposed, and to which IJ.lany are addicted. Any- OD. 0. 1-23.] THE BOOK OF HOSEA. 53