The Pulpit Commentary — Hosea — Section 310

hRe good cause to say, "It is good for me that I have been afflicted." If otherwise, if individuals are found faulty, if their sin has found them out, then the means of sinnin"' are suddenly and unexpectedly snatched from them, and themselves swept awfully ~ with the besom of destruction. 4. Whoever be the instrument or whatever the means, the Author of the Infliction is God. The subject here is not specified• as far as the grammar goes, it might be the Assyrian or other enemy that broke do~n their altars and spoiled their images, but sense and Scripture lead the thoughts up to God, Though indefinite, the emphatio use of the pronoun fixes the sense, III. PROSPEOT OF A GLOOMY FUTURE 18 THE NATURAL SEQUEL 011' A SINFUL PRESENT. Thll;B it is wit~ those w~o,. having perverted the gifts ?f God's g?odness, do not profit by punishment mildly admm1stered. Israel, who had reJected thet.r heavenly King, were soon to find themselves deprived of their earthly king, and reduced to a state of anarchy. They would soon be forced to say," We have no king, no protector." This is assigned as the cause of the preceding statement about the wreck of their altars and the ruin of their statues or pillars. This catastrophe is looked upon as brought about in consequence of their having no kingly protection or defence. Their rejection of Jehovah in the double capacity of God and King, by their turning to idolatry and refusing the theocracy, led eventually to ecclesiastical disaster, and civil or secuJar distress. Forsaking God as King, they have now no king-no upholder of either Church or state; consequently their altars, as they conceived, were broken down and their images spoiled. Thus they bemoan their present anomalous and perilous position. But they bethink themselves that even if they had a king he couJd do them no good, seeing that Di vine power was opposeci to them, and Divine wrath incurred by them. What, then, under such untoward circumstances, could a king do for them? Here is the exact converse of the believer's confidence: "If Goel. be for us, who can be against us?" Jerome's exposition brings out the sense well, as follows: "After God shall have shattered the images of Israel, and utterly destroyed their altars and statues, and the final captivity shall have come, they shall say, "We have no king." And lest they should think that the sentence would be deferred for a long time, he added, They shall say now: when they are beiog laid waste, when they shall perceive that Hoshea, their last king, has been removed from them-' a king is taken away from us, because we did not fear God, our true King; for what could a human king avail us?'" Vers. 4-8.-lsrael's sin, sorrow, shame, and S'll,jfering. These verses exhibit them with marvellous conciseness and great impressiveness. I. IsRAEL's BIN OF UNFAITHFULNESS. Israel's unfaithfulness at the period of which the prophet speaks was of the most reckless kind. It took the form (1) of idolatry with respect to God, (2) of disloyalty to their sovereign, and (3) of falsehood in their dealings with their fellow-men in general.· By their idolatry they renounced the covenant of their God, which had the seal of circumcision; their promises of reforma- tion, when they made such, were falsified; the vows wrung from them in distress or otherwise they failed to pay. The most sacred bonds did not bind them; subjects violated their oath of allegiance, and sovereigns their coronation oath; alike in treaties with foreign powers as in contracts with their fellow-men, they made no conscience of keeping faith. Add to all this the perversion of justice and the misuse of judgment, and the picture is complete; perfidy, perjury, and the perversion of judgment being in the foreground, and untrnthfuJuess the dark background of all. Such was the growth, prolific and pestiferous as hemlock, which at this period overspread the land of Israel as if in furrows specially prepared for it, II. ISRAEL'S BORROW IN OONSEQUEN0E OF sIN. Men may be sure that their sin shall find them out, by detection, or punishment, or both; while sorrow follows in the walrn of sin. The inhabitants of the northern capital, like the people of Bethel or Beth-aven, being calf-worshippers, and therefore called the people of the calf, would naturally be overwhelmed with consternation and alarm, when the news of an invading host approach- ing the provincial town, which was the chief seat of the calf-worship, reached them; still more se when that hostile host had actually entered it and carried off their idol. Their fear before the event would be succeeded by sorrow after it. Not only would the Sam11ritans sympathize with their coreligionists of Bethel in their calami~y and luss, but tremble because of their own proximity to peril, not knowing hnw soon the tiJe o.c  310 Till<: nooK O'F llOS~A. [on. x. 1-Hi.