The Pulpit Commentary — Hosea — Section 247

Do the pleasures of sin engross our affections, and are they the idol on which our hear~ dotes? Our idol will cas~ us ~ff. The pleasures of sin are short-lived; they last but for a season, and that seas0!3 lS at most_ and best a s~~rt one ; nor do they satisfy while they last. Is beauty the obJect of our idolatry? 'lh1s ce.lf, so greatly admired and much beloved, in a l1tile while casts off and disappoints its many worshippers. For beauty is a fair but fleeting flower ; it fades and fails. "All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of gras.s. The grass withereth, and the flower thereoffalleth away." The h~ir to or actu~l owner ~fa large ~state, ~ith its ~~oad acres and princely mansion, sets his heart on his splendid possesS1ons; his ma.gmficent property becomes his idol, but his ea.If casts him off. If only heir, he may never enter on the actual possession, and so he is disappointed of it; if already owner, he may in many ways be disappointed in it, or he may be deprived of it by force, or fraud, or casualty, or death; in either case the calf casts off the idolatrous worshipper. The hereditary estate, secure it as men will b.v deeds and settlements, shall change proprietorship and be taken away; there is no real fixity of tenure here on earth. The baronial residence shall .in time become a ruin grey, round which the ivy twines. 2. But why does the ea.If of Samaria, or, generally speaking, men's idol, prove so unsatisfactory, blighting men's hopes and blasting their expectations, so that they are left a prey to disappointment, disgust, distress, or even despair? Just because God's anger is kindled against it. God is a jealou8 God, and wiU not give his glory to another, or his praise to graven images. Whatever course .of. sin men pursue becomes like a conductor of electricity, and brings down the scathing lightning of the Divine wrath upon their guilty heads. 3. But the anger of God is not only kindled against them; it is aggravated and intensified by their obduracy of heart and persistent course of evil "How long," asks God, " will it. be ere they attain to innocency ? ' that is to say, how long will they persevere in their present evil w~Y,S; neither purging themselves from the sin of idolatry and putting away their idols, n~r stridng to attain to purity of life and uprightness of character? The omniscient One himself in asking this question seems surprised-with reverence be it spokfln-at their. suicidal obstinacy, as if bent on their own destruction and rushing on their own ruin. He waits to be merciful, but they repel the overtures of his grace; he stretches out his hand to receive and welcome them, but they refuse to return. No wonder our blessed Lord, during the dayj of his flesh, is reported in a certain place to have "marvelled because of men's unbelief." 4. We are further shown in the following verse the just- ness of God's indignation against those stupid calf-worshippers. This worship was no institution of God; it was Israel's invention. They could not lay the blame of it on others. Sinners sometimes feel a miserable satisfaction or even palliation, in endeavouring to make others the scapegoat of their own iniquities. This is an old story. Adam laid the fault of his eating the forbidden fruit on Eve; :Eve in turn trausferred it to the serpent. No doubt a load is lightened when it is laid on the i;uoulders of several persons instead of a single individual. Not so with Israel in this O~. VltI, 1-14,] Tlll )300K OF HOSlA. 2.47