The Pulpit Commentary — Hosea — Section 211

HOMILETICS. Vere. l-7.-0rimea charged 011, Israel; people and prina,. It was a time of !!l'eat corruption and of atrocious crimes. Nor were those crimes committeil only by pe~s••" "of the baser sort;" people and princes alike, rulers and ruled, had their share in them • the country and the capital, Ephraim and Samaria; the chief tribe and the chi,,f city' with the common people as well as elite, in the former, and members of the court in tb~ latter. All classes contributed their portion to the national sins, and sins of almost all classes were freely indulged in. I. 'l'HE CHARACTER OF SIN AS A. DISEASE, Sin is represented in Scripture as a disease -an all-pervading disease; it is as universal as the race, for all have sinned; it is an all-embracing disease, for it extends to the faculties and feelings of the soul, and employ~ as its instruments all the members of the body. It infects whole peoples as well as individual persons. The description which Isaiah gives of its widespread ravages applies to the body politic as well as to the body human: "The whole head is sick, and the whole hee.rt faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it ; but wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores." It is thus a loathsome dis<:ase, a dan- gerous disease, a deadly disease; and, unless arrested in time, it is a fearfully fatal disease. 'l'he Apostle James gives us the genesis and development of this disease: "When lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death;" and the symbol of this spiritual malady is leprosy-one of the most frightful scourges of humanity. II. THE MEANS OF HEALING EMPLOYED. The disease is so desperate that God alone can cure it, 1. If there is balm in Gilead and a physician there, God himself is that Physician, and a Physician who not only supplies the balm but applies it; he has pro- vided the remedy and prescribed the way in which it is made available. Thus the Prophet Jeremiah prays, " Heal me, 0 Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for thou art my Praise." To a people as well as a person laden with sin, God promises relief when it is earnestly sought and properly applied for; thus we read in 2 Chron. vii. 13, 14, "If I shut up heaven that there be no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people; if my people, which are called by my Name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land." If, then, sin-sick souls are not healed, it is not that God is either unwilling or unable to heal them. When Christ would have gathered the people of Palestine, or the inhabitants of its principal city, with all the tenderness and all the Cl!fefulness that the parent bird exercises in gathering its brood under its outspread wings, they would not. So is it still ; sinners' condemnation is self-procured as well a~ justly deserved, while the salvation of the righteous is only of the Lord. 2. The means which God employs for healing, though various, are yet pretty much the same at all times. One of these means, and that most commonly employed, is the Word of his grace read, preached, or meditated on. In all ages the chief instrumentality for reclaiming men has been his message of mercy. Thus he dealt with his ancient people: "The Lord God of their fathers sent to them by his messengers, rising up betimes, and sending ; because he had compassion on his people, and on his dwelling-place: but they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and misused his prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people, till there was no remedy " (margin, "heal- ing"). Other means used for the same end arn afflictions and adverse circumstances of whatever kind; cases of this sort, such as dearth, or famine, or pestilence, or impoverish- ment, or sore sickness and of Iona continuance, were frequent experiences of God's people in the past, But the purpose wa'; be11evolent and salutary: "By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged; and this is all the fruit to take away his sin." It is so still; for while "no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous : nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable frnit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby." Again, God sends intervals of prosperity with like design. This he did with Israel in the reign of Jeroboam II., in the days of Joash, and at otber periods in their history, in order to wean them from sin and win them to himself. Another meaD11 of healing which God rt~~ed to in the case of his ancient people was BOBEA.,  210 THE BOOK OF HOSEA. [CH, vm •l-16.