resumed hie gift; The sinner, who dependfi on Goo for "life, and breath, and all things," would fnin'keep the gifts, while declining &ll recognition of the Giver. This God rofusos to permit. The day is.coming when he will strip the sinner of all he has, 'l'he Lord has given, 11nd the Lord will take away. 3. Egypt-bondage. " Ephraim shall return to Egypt." The people were to sink back into tbe sta.te of oppres~ion, misery? and mixture with the .heathen in. which _they we~e when God took pity on them ID Egypt. The Exodus gave them a national existence, a calling, and a land, They were now to become a ••no people" to God, and be sent back, as it were, to Egypt again. Rejection by God means the loss of distinctive bein"0 of life-aim, of ephere1 of liberty, and su.bjootion to tb.e hard tyranny of sin, Satan, ~nd the world. III. UNOLEANNESB m ABBYBIA. (Vera. 3-5.) "They shall eat unclean things in Assyria," etc. Israel's condition in exile would be marked by : 1. Privation of privilege. 'l'hey would be cut off from the sanctuary (" house of the Lord"), and prevented from observing their feasts, and bringing their usual offerings (cf. eh. iii. 4 ). Their worship, as it stood, was not acceptable to God. 'l'hey, however, attached importance to their sanctuaries, altars, wine offerings, sacrifices, etc. And it would be part of their punishment that .they would .be deprived of them. 2. ugal W11CleannUB. The prophet speaks ·here also from the standpoint of the people. Their outward life, even in Canaan, had no right sanctification in it. Now, however, their food, sacrifices, etc.,,would become even formally 11nclean. Uncleanness would arise (1) from inability in a heathen country properly to observe the· laws of food;. (2) from the fact that the heathen country was itself j:>oHuted, and· communicated its uncleanness to food and offerings (cf. Amos vii. 17)•; (3) from the food not being properly sanctified by the presentation of the firstfruits (ver. 4)., Israel, in short,. would lose even their outward distinctuess as a sacred people, and would sink to the level .of ·the profaneness of the nations around. [It seems better, in ver. 4, to read, "their sacrifices shall not be pleasing to, him; (their bread shall be) as.bread of mourners unto them."] Separation from God irenders existence as e. whole unclean. The principle is, first, the conse- aration ot the person, then the consecration 9f the life. If. we are not consecrated to God, nothing we think, say, or do can be spiritually acceptable. Prayers, good works, eating and drinking, all remain ,unclean. We ;eat. unclean things in. Ass.yria-in the spiritual Egypt. The taint of death.pollutes body, sonl; and spirit. 3.. An ena of joy. (Ver. 5; cf. eh. ii. 11.) • , , . . . . . , IV. DESOLATE HABITATIONS. (Ver. 6.) I. Exile as burial. " Egypt shall gather them up, Memphis [e. n.oted place. of burial] shall bury them." The allusion. is still to Assyria figured as a second Egypt. The tribes would be lost in it as io a grave. Hence recovery is described as resurrection (eh. vi 2). Sin is death. Those aban- doned to sin are as the dead in graves. 2. Deserted dwellings. "Their pleasant places for their silver [or, 'valuables or silver.'], nettles shall possess them: thorns :;hall be· in their habitation." •, The present state of the Holy Land is the best commentary on this prediction. Sin leaves behind it rank desolation. Look at man's own soul! What deaolation there I Nettles, thorns, e. temple in rums.--J. 0. Vers. 7, 8.-Prophet and prophet. .We are disposed to prefer the view which takes ver. 7 to refer to the true prophet, Hosea himself; and ver. 8 to the prophets Ephraim had set up for himself alongside of the true.-" Ephraim is a watcher with [a.long with, but independently of] my God "-prophets who were as "the snare of a fowler" to the people. I. THE TRUE PROPHET. (Ver. 7.) 1. Wnat he saw. '"l'he days of visitation are come; the days of, recompense are come." _ The true prophet saw, and did not hesitate to declare in ,the ears of all1 the full extent of the ruin which was soon to overwhelm the nation. He did not, like ,the.false .prophets, soy, "Peace, peace,n when there was no peace (Jer. viii. 11). He told the awful truth. The event verified his words. God's !°essengers ·a.re faithful. 2. What lie. fell. 11 The prophet is a fool, the spiritual mnn 1s mad." .(Of.: Robertson Smith's • Prophets of Israel,' p. 157.) The words may express at once: (1) The judgment passed on the prophet by his contemporaries. They thought him "beside himself" (cf. Acts :x:xvi. 24:; 2 Cor. v. 13). They set down hi~ excitod utterances as ravings. (2) The sympathetic anguish which actually made thtl 296 THE BOOK OF HOSEA, [on. 1x. 1-17,
prophet- ft-el as one beside himself. " Hosea. W&S 8 atranger 8bl0ng hie own people, op1~l'("ssed_ by c_onti:riue.l contact with their sin! lacerated e.t heart by the bitterness of their ennuty, till his reason seemed ready t.o give wa.y under the trial." 3. Jii.9 moral m,~•si011, "For the multitude of thine iniquities, e.nd the great, he.tred." His eyo pierced to the moral cause of the judgments that were iinpending. Ho renrl their origin in the poople's sin, 1mrl in their hatred of what was good. A true prophet is kuown by the inten8ity of his grasp upon more.I truth. II. TnE FALSE PROPHET. (Ver. 8.) The prophets in whom Ephmim trusted wero: 1. SeV-constituted. "The watchman of Ephraim was with my God," or, "Ephraim is a wa.tchm,m," etc. Ephraim was not content with the prophots God gave him. Ho IOU8t. h1we prophets after his own heart.. He must bo a " watchman" on his own a_ccount. The false prophet thus ran without boing sent (Jer. xxiii. 21). He was not, h~e. the true prophet, a "man of the spirit." If an;r spirit was in him, it was a lying spmt. 2. Em11arers of the people. "The prophet 1s the snare of a fowler in all his wnys." They snared the people t.o their ruin (1) by their teaching, promising peace nnJ prosperity when there was none; (2) by their example, encouraging the people in their idolatries and follies ; (3) by making light of the moral element in conduct. They " strengthened the hands of the wicked, that he should not return from his wicked way, by promising him life" (Ezek. xiii. 22). They flattered the people's wishes; felt none of that u.gonizing sympathy with them which ma.de Hosea. seem as one msd; kept away from all denunciation of their sins. They were hirelings, whose own the sheep were not, and who cared not for the sheep (John x. 12, 13). They were a. snare "in all their ways "-out and out in everything they did. 3. Themselves as bad as the ,·est. "Hatred in the house of his God." Professing to speak in God's Name, the prophet was full of malignant hatred of God, and of those who spoke in God's Name (cf. .A.mos vii. 10-13).-J. 0.