The Pulpit Commentary — Hosea — Section 349

Ver. 3 (first clause).-Tlie tenderness of Divine discipline. Amidst Hosea.'s strong denunciations of sin, such a description a.s this of Divine tenderness to wayward men is sweet as a song amidst a storm, Both sternness and sweetness must of necessity appear before us in order to give a true apprehension of the method of God's dealing with human souls. That method is a.s varied as are the works of the same God in. nature, where every flower and leaf, every wind and stream, has its own place and its own. use. We cannot expect to find a uniform religious experience amongst men. We have no right to demand of others the agony of shame or the rapture of pardon. we ourselves know, or to declare that their experience is unreal because it i~ different from our own. 'l'he metaphors of the Bible might tea.eh us this. One series represents the Word as the hammer, that breaks the rock with resistless power; as the sword, which pierces the inmost soul and kills the old life; as the fire, that burns out the dross of character and fuses the whole nature in a glow of love to God. But there are metaphors which repre- sent the same Word as being like the sun, gradually diffusing light, slowly developing the flowers and fruits; as the attractive force, so subtle that it can only be known by its result; as the key which fits, and silently turcs the lock, so that the door is opened and the heavenly guests come in to abide there in. hply fellowship. It is in harmony with all we know of the variety of God's dealings with men, that the same prophet who speaks of the unwilling heifer dragged onward by ropes, shou!J. also speak of the little child who is lovingly upheld by his father when he takes his first tottering steps. l. THE FIGUBE THAT BETS FORTH THE TROTH. 1. Its boldness. None but an inspired man, who was conscious of inspiration, would have dared thus to describe the God he humbly reverenced. Sometimes a painting represents the glories of sunset, or the swell oft.he sea after a storm, the colours of which are so vivid that the onlooker at first says, "That is unnatural." A second-rate artist might.have shrunk from such a bold repre- aentatioo, but the great artist revels in the splendour of the scene; he feels that he must represent to others what was revealed to him; and so hands down to the future what had appeared at first a startling revelation of glory, even to himself. A people accus- tomed, like the Jews, to the signs of awful reverence with which Jehovah was approached would have been more surprised than we, who know God in Christ, to hear the prophet speak of him as a Father, or Mother, or Nurse, holding the child by the arms as he totters and trembles over his first footsteps. 2. Its beauty. Any natural fiiure drawn from a human home is beaut.Hui. It is well that family life has so often been made the basis of religious teaching. 'l'here are few scenes more universally familiar than this. \Vhen we exercise care and forethouo-ht for our children, and our hearts ~o out in tenderness to them in their helpless~es~, we know what God is to us. When we remember the sense of rest and sympathy and help which was our~ in child~ood's home, we become more conscious of what we may find, yet so often fail to find, 1n our heaveal.v Father's love. 3. Its truthfulness. Israel had become a great nation because of the Divine care which overshadowed them in their feeble infancy. In Egypt they had no national life, but were degraded serfs for whom revolt was useless. Bruught out by Divine power, they became conscious of new powers and possibilities. In the wilder- ness they were fed, not only with manna, but with the rudiments of piety, which were well ad&pted to their inf1uicy, By penalt.io11 which imil).eqiaiely 11~d visibly followed 350 THE BOOK OF HOSEA, [en. x1. 1-12.