The Pulpit Commentary — Hosea — Section 233

cnmplet.c renewal. We have evidence every day of the det.ermtned resist1mce which sin is c-apable 0f offering to God. We see it in others, and. we know it in experience. 3. Tile at.tempt to cure sin often results in aggravated manifeatations of it. The. sinful heart is roused to antagonism. Its latent enmity to God comes more fully out. Jt J"a!;CS in its opposition to his servants. When the commandment comes, sin revives (Rom. "ii. H). Tcmporar? amendment is followed by greater outbursts of wickedness (eh. vi. 8-10; Luke xi. 24-26). II. ITS BALEFDL MA:l("IFESTATI01'TS. "For they commit falsehood; and tl1e thief cometh in, and the troop of robbers spoileth without" (ver. 1). We have hero: 1. Falsehood. Israel ·w:ts guilty of falsehood (1) tow:trds God, in breakin"' his 0 co,·ennn t, in proving faithless to thc-ir vows of amendment, and in "speaking 1ies" concerning him (ver. 13); (2) townnls their allies, in disregarding treaty enge.ge- rne1,ts ; and (3) towards one another. Deceit had become part of their nature. 'When falsebood becomes a habit, moral reco,;ery is scarcely possible. The ingrained liar is an almost hopeless subject for conversion. 2. Robbery. Justice is itself a species of truth, and with the loss of the sense of truth there is under"'one a corre- sponding loss of the sense of justice. Each regards his neighbour as hi!;°'lawful prey. He robs him if he can. Thefts, heartless frauds, organized robberies, are of frequent occurrence. 3. v-i:olence. From robbery to violence the transition is not great. When men cease to Ii ve by honest labour, they do not stick at trifles. If a slack state of the law permits, crimes will abound. Where, as was the case iu Israel, the throne is built on muriler, it need not surprise us that lawlessness spreads in the community. III. ITS PITIFUL DELUSION. (Ver. 2.) "They consider not' in their hearts," etc. The point here is the obliviousness of the wkked to G~s knowledge of their doings. They extrude God from their thoughts. "They say, How doth God know? and is there knowledge in tbe Most lligh?" (Ps. lxxiii. 11). On this notice: 1. The wic!.-ed have, in secret, more knowledge of God than they pretend. Israel, with a prophet like Hosea in its midst, could not be entirely ignorant of God. It showed that it had some knowledge of him, by its cries to him in trouble, and by brief periods of amendment. This extrosion of him from the thoughts was, therefore, voluntary. It was Israel's will not to know God. Thus there lurks in the sinner's consciousness a spark of knowledge which renders him inexcusable for his habitual forgetfulness. He may banish God from his thoughts, and try to persuade himself that God does not remember his wickedness. But if he does so, it is because he prefers to live in a delusion which at bottom be knows to be such. 2. The wicked, as a role, do succeed in e;r;pelling God from their thoughts. 'l'hey get their own way. 'l'hey soon perfect themselves in the art of forgetting their Creator. Like the ostrich, which is fabled to hide its head in the sand as a protection from the hunters, they think that when they have succeeded in putting God out of their remembrance they have :somehow got rid of him. 3. The delusion in which the wicked encourage themselves does not in the least alter the real state of the case. Sinners may shut out the thought of God's knowledge of their doings, but none the less is God cognizant of everything they are about. " Their own doings have beset them about; they are before my face." 'l'his is tlie folly of sin; it cannot by its forgetfulness and denials alter the actual state of the fact~. The sinner's deeds are his own. He remains answerable for every one of them. With all his doings about him, he stands daily, hourly, constantly, in full ,•iew of the eye of God (Ps. cxxxix.). He will be called to an account.-J. 0. Yers. 3-1.-The oven and tM balcer. High and lo,v united in the wickedness which has been described, and is to be described. The example of the king and court ga,·e the key-note to the subjects, and they in turn pleased the king and his princes by a hearty imitation of their vices. "They made the king glad with their wicked- ness "-themselves living lives of debauchery and ungodliness; ";ind the princes with their lies "-offering them flattery, and siding with them in ridicule of the prophet's teachings A new image is here employed to set forth the enormity of the wickedness which prevailed-that, viz., of the heated oven and the baker. The elements of the fi::;urc may be thus analyzed. The oven is the heart; the fire, unholy lust, appetite, or pas~ion ; the dough., the evil intent or plan. This is prepared beforehand, while the tire smoulders beneath; when it ia matured for execution, the fire-lust or passion-is mt, vtJ. 1-18.] TlIF! BOOK OF H08'EA.