The Pulpit Commentary — Hosea — Section 254

Iike the eoli tary " wild ass " of the desert ; and it fell an eaey prey to tbe Assyrian lion. IV. IN THB CONFIDENCE 011' THE PEOPLE IN MATERIAL DEFENCES, (Ver. 14.) Hosea ascribes this particular sin to Judah rather than to farael. The Jews "trusted in their l"cnced cities" (Jer. v. 17). A fortified city is certainly a place of re[uae from th@ invading host. But the motto of such should be, "Nisi Dominm Jr:lstm;" for "exceft the Lord keep the city," it will be quite defenceless, in spite of its fortificationS: Judah s battlements were not the Lord's; so they attracted the thunderbolts of th@ Divine vengeance, and were at last burned with fire by Sennacherib (2 Kings xviii. 13), and by Nebuchadnezzar (2 Kings xxv. 9, 10). His cities and towers had been erected Babel-like, in proud self-confidence; and thus they ultimately became his destruction. ' CONCLUSION, 1. What was true of Ephraim will be true also of England, so soon as the national life of our land shall resemble bis. If we claim that the spiritual promises made to Ephraim apply to England, we ought also to acknowledge that the denunciations directed against Ephraim may possibly be deserved by England too. 2. If Ephraim's sin turned out to be its own punishment, it is the same also with that of each individual sinner. Retribution falls upon the wrong-doer in the course of natural la~; For Providence is just, and" of our pleasant vices makes instruments to plague us.~.J. Ver. 1.-Reaping the whirlwind. The figure here is extremely striking; it is one of the most forcible and vivid of Hosea's images. It suggests the folly and unprofit- ableness of a lit"e of sin; those who Ii ve such a life "sow the wind." And it em pha- sizes the fact that while the harvest must be the same in kind as the seed sown, the increase will be tremendous, both in strength and volume. The whirlwind of the desert tears along with a roar like a cataract, and carries in its wings violent and sweeping destruction ; it is, therefore, a fit metaphor for the issue of a career of sin. Let WI inquire who are some of those that thus reap. I. lDoLATERB. It is of such that the prophet is more immediately speaking. The people of the ten tribes were "sowing the wind" when they prayed to the golden calves for abundant harvests; and they would presently "reap the whirlwind" in the three years' siege of Samaria. by Shalmaneser, in the successive deportations into exile, and in the final ruin of the nationality of Ephraim. The generation that came out of Egypt seven centuries before had reaped a sad harvest from the calJ:.worship at Horeb. "'.l.'here fell of the people that day about three thousand men" (Exod. xxxii. '.ZS). And ever since that time the idolatries of Israel had been a standing grief to Jehovah their Redeemer (Ps. lxxxi. 8-16); until at length there was nothing for it but the two hurricanes of captivity, which respectively swept the ten tribes into Assyria, and tho remaining two into Babylon. All heathendom, moreover, "reaps the whirlwind" still as the fruit of its idolatries-a harvest (as Paul tells us in Rom. L 18-32) of moral corruption and vileness, overhung by the storm-cloud of the Divine wrath. II. DESPOTS. 'l'he tyrant makes an idol of his own evil will, and "sows the wind" o~ ambition, and pride, and vain-glory, and disregard of the rights of others. Universal history teems with illustrations of the fact that those kings and grandees of the earth who will not give God the glory are doomed to reap a harvest of whirlwind. Take, e.g., from sacred history such cases as Pharaoh, Ahab and Jezebel, Sennacherib, Haman, Herod. Or, from profane history, such illustrations as the Stuart kings of England, the Bourbon kings of France, and the fate of the two Napoleons. Some tyrants have foreseen the harvest before it beaan to be aathered in; like Louis XV., when he said to his courtiers, " After me, the deluge." " III. CARELESS PARENTS. All who nealect 0 the godly upbringing of their children "sow the wind." There are well-meanina heads of households who fail to maintain a firm an_d resolut~ as well as ldndly family government. 'l'hey_allow the_ir young people to chensh ijelf-w1ll, or to follow pleasure as if it were the business of life, and neglect to exercise due restraint over them. This was the sin of Eli (1 Sam. iii. 13); and he reaped the tornado in the disarace which was thus brought upon the priesthood, together with the destruction of his ~wn house. There are parents, also, who in their own pers?ne.l charac~er fail ~o set 11_ consistent godly exa~ple befo~e t~eir sons and ,bu_ghters. Davul's great wn entailed evil upoA his family like a whl.flwmd i soma of lus soAs  254 '!'HE :OOOK OF HOS~A. [011, vru,·l-14.