"M11ke you e. new heart, ancl e. new spirit~ (Ezek. xviii. 31). 2. &wing m tM IOl,7. 'l'he sowing _ie to be "in righteousness," ~.e. in the practice of truth, kindness, justice, merer, godlme~A, and everything else which the Law of God requires. Each must sow for himself. The sowing cannot be done by proxy. Sowing in righteousness is "for oul'selvee" in the eenae also that our own highest well-being is involved in it (Pd. xix. 11). Righteouenees in the long run profits the doer himself more than it profits auy other. It is his "life" (Deut. xxxii. 47). 3. Waiting on God. "For it is time to seek the Lord, till he come and rain righteousness upon you." As in the outer world rain is indispensable to growth, so is the blessing of God, given in rains of his Spirit, essential to growth in grace. In raining the Spirit upon us, God rains righteousness. Cause is put for effect. It is the Spirit's influences which cause righteousness to spring up. 'l'his waiting on God must accompany the whole process. It implies an earnest direction of the heart, supplication, and patient looking for the blessing. It is always "time" for the sinner to seek the Lord. He cannot do it too soon. 4. The gracious reaping, "Reap in. mercy." Not according to desert, but according to God's infinite grace and love. The reaping is (1) a reaping of righteousness (Rom. vi. 19, 22); (2) of other spiritual and temporal blessings (Matt. vi, 33; Eph. i. 3); (3) of eternal lift, (Rom. vi. 12). II. THE KIND OF HUSBANDRY ISRAEL DID FOLLOW. (Ver. 13.) 1. Instead of" sowing in righteousness," Israel ploughed wickedness. They took pains to do evil, bestowed labour upon it, prepared the soil in which it might grow, and seemed to delight in multiplying transgressions. If God's people were as diligent in cultivating goodness as sinners are in cultivating sin, the Church would soon be in a healthier condition. 2. Instead of "reaping in mercy," they reaped iniquity. Sin brought forth sin. They served "iniquity unto iniquity" (Rom. vi. 19). As weeds multiply quicker than good grain, so sin, in the same space of time, yields afar greater harvest (of its own kind) than righteousness. 3, Instead of spiritual and temporal blessings, Israel reaped disappoint- ment and ruin. (1) They reaped lies (disappointment). "Ye have eaten. the fruit of lies." Their hopes, built chiefly on the multitude of their fighting men (ver. 15), deceived them. They proved utterly vain. They had sown lies in " speaking words" and "swearing falsely in me.king a covenant" (ver. 4); they now reaped the fruit of this, in seeing their hosts utterly routed, their fortresses captured, and their women and children dashed to pieces (ver. 14)-judgment springing up in the furrows they had themselves made (ver. 4). (2) They reaped ruin. When war arose, the sword of the Assyrian swept all before it. Israel could read in recent atrocities of Sha.Iman the doom which awaited themselves (ver. 14). King and kingdom would be cut off (ver. 15)-" in a morning," i.e. early. This was the result of their sowing. This was what Bethel, with its " evil of evil," had done for them. Oh that the sinner would take warning 1-J, O.
EXPOSITION. OHAPTER XL fixed ; (2) after time-determinations. The In. vers. 1-4 Jehovah enumerates the life of a nation has its stages of'ri.se, progress, and development, like the life ot' an in- benefits conferred on Israel all along from dividual man. The prophet goes back to the time of their departure out of Egypt. that early period when the national life of But parallel with this enumeration runs the Israel was in iui infancy; it was then that a history of Israel's ingratitude. few patriarchs who had gone down to sojourn. in Egypt were becoming a people; the pre- Ver. 1.-When Israel was a ohild, then I dicate precedes, to emphasize, that early day lov.ed him, and o!llled my aon out of Egypt. when Israel became God's peculior people. Di:ive_r uses this verse to exemplify the 'l'he vav marks the apodosi.s recording God'~ prmc1ple that when the reference is to what love in choosing that people, calling them is past or certain, rather than. to what is into the relation of sonship, and delivering future or indefinite, we find the predicate or them out of Egypt. Thus Kirnchi says, the apodosi.s introduced by ), though not with '' When Israel was yet a chilJ, i.e. in Egypt, nearly the same fre11uenoy as S perfect and then I lornd him, therefore I am more angry vav cauaes (1) with subject or object pre- with them than with the rest of the nations; 330 THE BOOK OF HOSEA. [en, x1. 1-12.