The Pulpit Commentary — Hosea — Section 281

Vers. 10, lL-God's good,i,ess met with ingratitude by a sinful people. Instead of repenting of their sins, they persevered. in their rebellion against God. .As if God overlooked or connived. at their enormities, they added their deep corruption in the matter of Gibeah, in the days of the judges, to the iniquity of Baal-peor at a still earlier period; while the sins of Gibeah and Baal-peor were equalled by those of the prophet's own day. L THE DELIGHT WEICH GoD TOOK IN TBEm FATHERS. Their sainted sires had been the favourites of Heaven; the fathers and founders of their race bad sought God's •face and favour free," and, walking in his ways, enjoyed his benediction. • 1. God's pleasure in the piety of bis people is truly astonishing, though that piety is entirely traceable to his own gracious dealings with them. When a weary wanderer in a wilder- IUISS comes upon grapes rich and ripe, or figs the first and finest of the season, how he is refreshed by fruits so rare and luscious ! Such is the strong and suggestive figure by which God expresses his delight in his servants of old; nor does he take less delight in them in the present than in the ancient days. Men like .Abraham the faithful, or Isaac the meditative, or Jacob the prayerful, or Joseph the pure, or Moses the meek, enjoy the sunshine of God's favour still 2. Where much is given much is required. If God thus delights in his people, surely hie people should delight in God. If God views with such complacency the fruit of his own Spirit's operations in the hearts of his people, and the effects of his own grace seen reflected in their lives, surely it is our bounden duty a.swell as high privilege to reciprocate in some measure the Divine good- ness, delighting in the Divine ordinances, living in the Divine service, and promoting the Divine glory. 3. God is particularly delighted. with the firstfruits, and not only so, but with the first of the firstfruits. Here is special encouragement to the young to devote themselves early to God, and early to delight themselves in him. '£hey are invited to give their young hearts to God when the dew of their youth is heavy upon them-when their perception is keen, their conscience tender, their /affections warm, and their memory retentive. II. THEIR DEGEl!l"ERACY. Their fathers had been to God as grapes in a desert land, and as the first ripe in the fig tree at her first time; but the degenerate descendants of such godly ancestry had become like fruit bitter and sour. 'l'hey resembled fruitless fig trees, or the wild vine with its small harsh berries ; and that, notwithstanding all Jebovah's care and culture, they had long ceased to walk in the ways or follow the steps of their iodly forefathers. The holiness of those forefathers, refreshing as grapes Q{ best quality and figs of the first growth to the heart of God, was no longer to be found; on, tx. 1-17.J TII~ BOOK Oh' HOSEA. 281