The Pulpit Commentary — Hosea — Section 405

dcspoilrd of his aut,horitr, dcptfred or m~ny of his s\lbjects, Rnd on tho vergo of ruin I his ncti "iti?s and vigour f:Olle a_nd his dignity departed, himself alrel\dy dead though not yet buried. " When Ephraim forsook God and took to wori!hlp images, the state receiYed it.s death-wound, and was never good for anything after. Note: desorting Gorl is the del\th of any person or persons." II. SIN IS A DOWNWARD SLOPE. '!'he sin of idolatry was gradually developed ln Israel. It began with the modification of the national worship by Jeroboam when he changed the place and plan of that worship. When ho had audaciously transferred th€ place of worship from Jerusalem to Dan on the Syrian frontier, and to Bethel on the border of the kingdom of Judah, in order to keep the people away from Jerusalem the true place of worship a.nd seat of the Davidic dynasty, he proceeded further to introduce th6 worship of the calves-a relapse, at least as to form, into the idolatry of Egypt. His design was not, indeed, the introduction of a new and rival deity, but the modelling of J ehovah's worship under an external and symbolic form. The sin did not stop here; it. progressed until, in the days of Ahab, the Ph<EO.ician deity Baal became an object of worship. It was bad enough to make a graven image or material representation of the true God and bow down to it, thus violating the second commandment and neglecting the solemn instruction that the worship of God must be spiritual, not material; but it was still worse to introduce other gods, as the Phrenician llaal, in direct violation of the first commandment of the Law, which requires the eaiclusive worship of Jehovah. Thus the sin of idolatry progressed in Israel. Nor is this all; along with the worship of Baal the idolatry of the calves, as we learn from this Scripture, still survived two h.undrerl years after its introduction by Jeroboam. Thus they" grew worse and worse; coveted more idols, doted more upon those they had, a.nd grew more ridiculous in the woM!hip of them." Superstition is an expensive thing. Israel used much of the means God had given them in making molten images. It is a whimsical thing; men follow their own fancies in carrying it out. It is a.n unspeakably stupid thing; that image which is man's work, man's wisdom, the product of man's wilfulness, becomes the object c;:,f man's worship. It is, moreover, a debasing thing; the fervour of their worship is stimulated by an authoritative, perhaps a royal, edict, enjoining reverence and homage to the senseless iU1&ge of a calf. But whether the command proceeds from priests, or people, or prince, tht kissing of the calves was in token of " the adoration of them, affection of them, and allegiance to them as theirs." It has been justly remarked by Pusey that "sin draws on sin. This seems to be a third stage in sin. First, under Jeroboam, was the worship of the calves. Then, under Ahab, the worship of Baal. Thirdly, the multiplying of other idols (2 Kings xvii 9, 10), penetrating and pervading the private life, even of their less wealthy people." III. Tm: SRO!iT-LIVED STATE OF SJNNERS. They have often the show of prosperity, but their prosperous state is short-lived. " I have seen," says the psalmist," the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay tree" ( or a green tree growing in its native soil). "Yet he passed away, and, lo, he was not: yea, I sought him, but he could not be found." This truth is illustrated by four very striking similitudes. The mornincr cloud glowing in the early sunshine, assuming phantastic forms and displaying varying" hues of beauty, often presents itself as a forerunner of the rain-shower to mo'isten the dry parched ground ; but ere long it vanishes, and the cloudy morning ushers .in a clear and rainless day. The early dew, with its pearly drops so bright and beautiful on the grass of a summer morning, which appears as if to promise sufficient moisture to the earth even in the absence of the long looked-for rain, is soon brushed aside by e. passing foot, or evaporates before the day has far advanced. Both similitudes had already been employed by the prophet to exhibit the fleeting and transitory nature oflsrael's religious profession and the consequent disappointment to the Divine expectations, so they a.re used here in turn to represent the transient character of sinners' prosperity and .their di.Bappointment from worldly things. The two other similitudes, though less pleasing, are equally powerful as representations of what is evanescent: the worthlesR chaff, which is whirled away in winnowinu; and the offensive smoke, which, as has been pithily said, swelleth, welleth, and vanish;th-both soon dissipated and disappearing. "While these four emblems in common," says Pusey, "picture what i.8 fleeting, two, the early dew and the morning doud, are emblems of what is in itself good, but passing; the two others, the chaff and the smoke, are emblemR of what is worthless. 'The rlew and the OH. XIII. 1-16.] THE BOOK OF HOSEA. 407