The Pulpit Commentary — Hosea — Section 144

however tb~y may cloak them, &a though it were possible to cheat the Almighty; yet all such artifices, by which they try to deceive their neighbours, or blind themselves, or e,en escap~ the eye of Omniscience, will prove miserable evasions, leaving them at lost ~ve~ the mmost thoughts and intents of their hearts-open and naked before the eyee of him with whom they have to do. "'l'be Lord seetb not as man seeth: for man looketh on the 0~1twa1:d appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart." The sin of Ephraim, the premrnr tribe of Israel, was known to God, and he pronounced it whoredom, Apiritual ~boredom, that is, idolatry. The effect of that sin, which, ori!(iuating with Ephraim, mfected all the other tribes of Israel, was not bid, and could not be hid, from the omniscient One, and he denounced it as defilement-pollution loathsome as sinful. Many a specious excuse had been offered, we cannot doubt, for the worship of the calves. Did it not originate with Jeroboam, that patriot king who came to the rescua of the people, and deli,ered them from unjust and grinding taxation? Was not Jerusalem too far distant from the centre of the country to be the gathering-place of the tribes? Was not Bethel a consecrated place-a holy spot from that early time when Jacob had his wondrous vision of the ladder connecting earth with heaven? Was not Dan con- veniently situated for the northern and remoter tribes? These, and such arguments as these, might serve to palliate the will-worship of Ephraim and the idolatry of Israel. But no; the eye of God saw through it all; for now, whatever excuse might be alleged; now, whatever plausibilities might be employed ; now, whatever veil might be thrown over their procedure ;-it stood ont in its true colours, and in the sight of Heaven, idolatry, defilement-sin in inception and sin in execution, sin in act and sin in effect. Thns Omniscience is proof against all the plausible pretexts with which men surround their sins by way of excuse, apology, or palliation. V. Sn,s, LIKE SORROWS, LOVE A TRAIN. How often one sin leads to another, and that, again, to many more! Sins not nnfrequently are linked together. Israel by this time was bound by the chain of their own sins; and the links of that chain were ma.Dy.· Beginning our enumeration with idolatry, we find in its wake impenitence, ignorance, insolence, and iniquity in general. 1. It is bad enough when men fall into sin, bat worse when they persist in it; nor is there any real repentance unless there are fruits me.et for repentance. But when men will not have recourse to any of those outward means that might tend toward repentance, the obduracy of their heart is extreme and their condition desperate. Thns was it with Israel when they would not" frame their doings to tum unto their God." 2. The alternative rendering of these words shows us the slavery of sin. Never was there a more crnel bondage than that of iniquity. "Their doings will not suffer them to turn;" they have put the yoke on their neck, and having worn it long they are loth to part with it; and if they would they could not. "Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accUBtomed to do evil." So in Peter we read of persons "having eyes full of adnltery, and that cannot cease from sin." 3. When men continue long in a course of sin, hardening themselves against remonstrnnce and reproof, and holding out against all indncements and invitations to repent, God may, and sometimes does, give them up to judicial blindness of one kind or other. An evil spirit of idolatry or impunity, or both, had taken possession of the people's heart at this period. "A strong man armed keepeth his palace---his goods are in peace;" so the infatuation of a particular course of sin, like a Satanic spirit and with Satanic power, eompletely overmastered and dominated them. 4. Profession without practice is both hypocritical and vain. ' The Israelites a.t this time had a profession of religion, for God is called" their God," which could only,be by their profession, or owing to the original covenant engagement, the conditions of which they bad fallen away from, or by reason of his long-suffering mercy waitin~ for their retnrn. lt i.s, rather, the :first of these that justified the use of the possessive in this case. And that being so, they claimed to possess knowledge of God; but " as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind," or, as the margin has it, 11 to a mind void of judgment." Continuance in sin proves men's ignorance of the trne character of God, of the beauty of holiness, of the hatefulness of Bin, and of the dreadful consequences of backsliding. The custom of sinning deprives men of whatever knowledge of such things they had or seemed to have, so that "he that Lath not, from him shall be taken even that which he bath." 5. This ignorance was evidence of their ingratitude. "The prophet,'' sayll Calvin, "extenuates not the. CH, V, 1-15,] THE BOOK OF HOSEA, 143