The Pulpit Commentary — Hosea — Section 269

will urge any pleas which they think will gain them mercy. They are as anxloll8 now to rnRke themselves out God's friends as formerly they were to have nothin" to do with him. In times of affliction or peril, as well as on the approach of death ;;r judg- rneni, sinners show themselves very willing to call on God. "Many will &ay unto me in that day, Lord, Lord," etc. (Matt. vii. 22). Such pleas, however, will not avail. 'l'he repentance is too late, and it is not sincere. Israel would gain nothing by being of the seed of Jacob (er. Matt. iii. 9). II. AN IKVARIABLE SF.QlIBNCE. (Ver. 3.) Israel, having cast off good, would be pul'!lued by the enemy. The sequence is short, simple, certain. It is as sure as any law of nature. 1. .A11tecedent. "Israel hath cast off good." In every sense Israel had done this. The nation had (1) cast out the knowledge of good (eh. iv. 6); (2) cast off the practice of !!ood ( eh. iv. 1, 7; v. 4; vi. 7 ; vii. 1, 2) ; (3) despised the hope of good, the blessing and salvation promised on condition of obedience. 2. Consequent. "The enemy shall [or, 'let the enemy'] pursue him." 'l'he enemy pursues those who cast off good. (1) Conscience pursues. The sinner cannot escape from its rebukes, sconrgings, and pursuing memories. (2) The laws of nature pursue. Nature is so constituted that its laws are on the side of the virtuous, and against those that do evil. Sin is followed by inevitable natural penalties. (3) Divine justice pursues. There is, even in this life, a providential retribution which the sinner seldom escapes (cf. Deut. xxviii.). In any case there is a final judgment, when every one she.11 receive for the things done in the body, e.ccording to that he he.th done, whether good or bad (2 Cor. v. 10). III. REPRESENTATIVE TRANSGRESSION. (Ver. 4.) Israel's kings were not of God. They had been set up without consulting God, and had ruled in disregard of God's will. The worship of the calves was in direct opposition to Divine commandment. It had its ground in political expediency. This lays bare to us the essence of ungod- liness. Ungodliness: 1. Waives aU regard to God's will in the shaping of life. It plans existence irrespectively of God. Whatever the ungodly man "sets up," it is done "without God." He seeks an independent being. 2. Makes gods for itsel,f 01tt of God's gifts. "0£ their silver and gold have they made them idols." The world becomes its god. 3. The end-" cut off."-J. 0. , ers. 5-7 .-Broken gods. Samaria would now discover the folly of trusting in her calf. I. SAMARIA'S CALF. (Vers. 5, 6.) 1. The fatuity of making it. "From Israel was it also: the workman made it; therefore it is not God" (ver. 6). Idolatry is a huge absurdity. That cannot be a goo which we make with our own hands (cf. Isa. xl. 18-20; xliv. 9-20). As foolish is it to make a god of wealth, position, reputation, or anything created by man's effort. 2. The folly of trusting in it. "Thy calf, 0 Samaria, bath cast thee off" (ver. 5); "The calf of Samaria. shall be broken in pieces" (ver. 6). (1) It could uot help. (2) It was helpless to save itself. Anything earthly that man relies on will prove a vain help when God wills its overthrow, or the over- throw of him who depends on it. 3. The reward of serving it. " Mine anger is kindled against them" (ver. 5). God's anger was kindled (I) at the idolatry; (2) at the sins connected with the idolatry; (3) at the resistance shown to the means used for the nation's spiritual recovery. "How Jong will it be ere they attain to innocency?" The effects of this kindling of God's anger are described in ver. 7. One effect would be the destruction of their idol (ver. 6). II. Sr!>'s PENALTIES. (Ver. 7.) Retribution is set forth under two images. 1. The wind and whirlwind. "They have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind." " The wind is an image of vain human efforts, from which ruin is developed, as natur- ally as the wind becomes a tempest" (Schmoller). The image suggests: (1) The unsub- stantiality of sinful objects of pursuit. Substanceless as wind (cf. eh. xii. 1). (2) That the sinner is not his own master. Wind is an image of the hurrying force of passion. The sinner's passions hurry him along. (3) That sin develops the elemen~s -0f its own retribution. The sowing is congruous with the reaping. As the sinner 1s hurried along by ein, iO he must submit to be swept along by God's judgments. As he lived an uneubsta.ntial life, he must submit to have the unsubsta.ntiality of his life revealed by the tempest that lays it in ruins. 2. The bla1ted grain. " It hath no OH. VIII. 1-14,] 'rHE BOOK OF HOSEA. 26fl