The Pulpit Commentary — Hosea — Section 406

cloud were temporary mercies on the part of God which should cease from them • goorl in themselves, but, to their evil, soon to pass av:ay.' . . . Such dew were the' many prophets vouchsafed to Israel ; such was Hosea h1mself, most brilliant but soon to pass 11we.y. 'fhe cha.ff was the people itself, to be carried out of the Lord's iand • the smoke • its pride 1md its errors, whose dise.ppearance was to leave the air pure for tbe household of God.'" IV. Sm IS BABE INGRATITUDE TO Goo. 1. God assures Israel that, however far they he.d degenerated e.nd fallen, however much they had changed, the chan"e had been ~ntirely o~ their side_. not on his; as though he had said," And I, even I," for° the prononn 1s emphatic," am et1ll Jehovah, the same unchangrng and unchangeable Bein", the same in mightiness to succour, the same in willingness to help; also thy God, the same in covenant relation, the ea.me in faithfulness to every promise, and the same in ability to fulfil the wo~d he has pledg_ed." 2. He pleads their past experience and the many proofs he had given them of his goodness; he appeals to them m regard to his treat- ment of the fathers and founders of their race, going back to the period of the Exodus, and thus gently hinting the covenant entered into at Sinai and reminding them of its conditions. In view of God's faithfulness and their own faithlessness, of God's goodness and their ingratitude, of his endurin:i; mercies which they and their progenitors had experienced for centuries, and of the fitful and unfrequent conformity of their condnct therewith, they must surely have hung their head in shame and cried out in the lan- guage of another prophet, "0 Lord, righteousness belongeth unto thee, but unto us confusion of faces, as at this day." 3. The law of reciprocity demands a return on the part of the people of God. He had made himself known to them by his Word and by his works, by his providences and by hie prophets; he had made himself known to them as their fathers' God, as their own God in a special relationship, acknowledging them as his peculiar people. He naturally claimed, not only their knowledge, but acknowledgment of himself. It was their boWJ.den duty, in turn, to acquaint themselves with him, to know him to be their God and no other, to acknowledge him in his ineffable perfections, in his glorious attributes, and in the ordinances of his worship, and also to own allegiance to him alone. And if all this was a duty incumbent on Israel, surely it is a diity equally incumbent, yea., much more so, upon onrselves; while neglect of such duty on our part brands us with an ingratitude deeper, blacker, and baser than that of Ephraim when the prophet wrote. 4. He backs all with the assurance of his saving power, and assigns as a special reason for knowing and acknowledging God that there is no Saviour besides him. Of this he had given abundant proof by the deliverances he had wrought and the provision he had made for them, as for their fathers before them, under the most trying circumstances, when they were in the wilderness, in the land of great drought. The very idea of God implies saving power on his part, and happiness in time e.nd eternity for all who are his true Israel ; and "as where we have protection we owe allegiance, so where we have salvation and hope for it we owe adoration." Now, a frien4 in need is a friend indeed. Such a Friend was God to Israel, an all-sufficient Jfriend ; and just such a Friend is God to his people still. V. SIN, DY REASON OF CERTAIN AGGRAVATIONS, BECOMES MORE HEINOUS IN THE SIGHT OF Goo. This is the case specially when the good gifts of his providence ue used to the dishonour of God and the neglect of his service. It was thus with Israel, when pride of heart and forgetfulness of God were the return they made him for a.11 his goodness to themselves and their fathers during all the years that had been from their entrance into the land of promise. The Lord himself had been their Shepherd ; he had tended them with greatest care, leading them in green pastures and by still waters. But "Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked." How often is this conduct of Israel repeated! Prosperity pampers pride, and pride makes men forget God, as if it were men's neces- sities that kept them mindful of God. "It is sad that those favours which ought to make us mindful of God, and studious what we shall render to him, should make H unmindful of him, and regardless what we do against him. We ought to know that we live upon God, when we live upon common providence, though we do not, as Israel in the wilderness, live upon miracles.'' VI. Srn's SAD SEQUEL. The sins of the people grew worse and became more aggre.- vated: the Divine judgments are in proportion. In an early verse (third) of the cha.pter they are threatened with the evanescence of their prosperous condition, but somethin~  'l'HJ.: DOOK OF HOSEA. [ell. XIII, 1-16,