The Pulpit Commentary — Hosea — Section 373

thero be any evil in men, can see no good in inem; this is wicked. But there are others that, IC there be any good in them, can see no evil ; this is too much indulgence. They err in both extremes." III. THE IMPABTIALITY 011 THE DlVIJIJI: DEALil!IGI. 1. It is not a. little etrano:re how men sometimes try to screen themselves by the sins of others, or to pa.llia.te their ~roncr- doing bf the yet grea.ter wrong-d?ing of others. It might h~ve been so with Ephra.i~; they might have pleaded the a1n11 of Judah In extenuation of their own, or even charged the Moat High with uneven dealing with them in punishing their sins when Judah'e sins were condoned. They might have said," We are not so very much worse than Judah; there are sine in Judah ae well aa in lerae\; why, then, ebonld Judah escape?" Bo with many still ; they are ready to say, "We a.re not worse than others• we have our faults, so have our neighbour&; if we deserve punishment, so do others ai: well." God shows us that his ways a.re equal, that he will not punish Ephraim and allow Judah to escape, but that he will render to every man as his works shall be. 2. But their plea might be easily turned aga.in11t them to their great discomfiture. If Judah is admittedly euperior to Israel, and retains the true worship of Jehovah though with certain drawbacks, and if Israel has renounced that worship, and is in other matters in a worse case, might it not be aaked in words similar to a New Testa- ment Scripture, If even with Judah Gcxl. has a controversy, how can Israel expect to escape? "If the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and sinner appear?" 3. Though every sin deserves the severest judgment, being an infinite offence against the infinitely Holy One, yet he proportions hi.s chastisements to ihe degree and aggravation of each offence, and the obstinacy of the offender. IV, 'lllBEE BIBTOBIOAL SKETCHES OUT 011 THE LIFE OB' JACOB A:!."D THEIR LESSONS, These histories record the three great struggles of the patriarch'~ life. 1. His birth, when he takes his brother by the heel, 1;ives evidence of a Divine instinct or a divinely directed inclination to struggle for the birthright and its blessings. (1) The first lesrlon taught us in the Scripture record of Ja.cob's birth (Gen. xxv. 22, 26) is the electing Jove of God, or that gracious favour which God is pleased to extend to men, anJ that without respect to their works of merit or desertu of any kind. Not only a.re thu people of God chosen by him from eternity, as we read," He hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the worlcl," and consequently before they have done either good or evil, but sometimes they are made partakers of his sanctifying grace from the womb; thus we read of Jeremiah (i. 6), "Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; au,i before thou earnest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee;" so also of John th" Baptist (Luke i. 44), "Lo, as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in mine ean, the babe leaped in my womb for joy." (2) Jacob's struggl~ to anticipate Esau in being the firstborn, and so to secure the birthright and its blessing, presaged the high spiritual position to which in the purpose of God he was to attain. Even the unsucces~ of the effort does not lead Jacob to relax his efforts or relinqui.sh his object, till grace compensated his natural disadvantage and crowned his persistent strug~llllg with success. (3) The posterity of the patriarch are here taught not to fall back on, and boast of, the dignity and privileges of their ancestor, but to bestir themselves as he bad done to secure spiritual blessings. (4) When God bestows grace in any it furnishes abundant cause of thanksgiving, but especially is this the case when that grace is granted in early life, so as to prevent those youthful follies and lusts that war against the soul, and which, in the case of those afterwards converted, often make them to possess the iniquities of their youth and embitter all their after-years. 2. The wres- tling with the angel and prevailing formed the next great epoch lll Ja.cob's life. 'l'bis which is recorded in Gen. xxxii. we.a a season of great terror and distress, as well as of no little danger from hie brother Esau. But he did not give way before the clangers that threatened him, nor succumb under the difficulties of his position; he bravely faced the discouragements that surrouudecl him-not, however, in his own streugth. By the strength which God gave he had power with God; in the vigour of his strength he wrestled with the Angel of the covenant and prevailed. He saw the pruviclt,nce of Goel in all that betided him, and wrestled for the Divine favour ancl succour. Thu wreHtling symbolizccl tho intense earnestness 1md energy which he put forth; the object for which ho strove so earnestly and energetically was the blessiug uf hi:; Uu,l; tho means employed were prayers and tears and fervent st1pplications; the per:;u,t,mc~ witu  374- 'fHg DOOK OF HOSEA. (011. ][Jt, 1-14.