The Pulpit Commentary — Hosea — Section 415

Ver. 14.-Jehovah the Destroyer of death. This sublime promise of mercy is imbedded among threatenings of judgment. It reminds us, both as it occurs here and in the connection in which the Apostle Paul quotes it (1 Cor. xv. 55), that although in our world "sin bath reigned unto death," it ie the prerogative of the Almighty to rescue from the grasp of the grave, and even to abolish death itself. We may profitably consider some of the spheres within which the Lord has chosen to exercise this preroira,tive. The promise of our text applies to- I. THE BEBTOBATION OF lsBAEL. Ever since the two captivities Israel has been, as it were, a dead nation. The Jews have been dispersed over the world, and have not yet been able either to recover their national independence or to maintain their national worship. But Hosea here assures hie countrymen of future restoration and blessing, notwithstandini!: the final ruin of the kingdom of Ephraim. " The only meaning that the promise had for the lsraelit.es of the prophet's day was that the Lord possessed the power even to redeem from death, and raise Israel from destruction into newness of life; just as Ezekiel (mvii.) depicts the restoration of Israel as the giving of life to the. dry bones that lay scattered about the field " (Keil). But the future thus expressly predicted for Ephraim is more blissful than even Hosea, to whom this oracle was given, could readily, or perhaps poseibly, conceive. Israel's restoration shall be spiri~ual. The captive Hebrews, eo far and eo long estranged from God, shall return to hIS favour. The very people who at last crowned their sinful career by "crucifying the Lord of glory "-a si:i. still more heinous than all the wickedness for which Hosea rebukes them -shall be wade the subjects of a glorious future. "They shall look upon him whom they have pierced" (Zech. xii. 10), and at last accept him as the Messiah. They shall become zealous and successful missionaries of the cross, and shall contribute largely to the bringing in of the world's jubilee (Rom. xi. 15). II. 'l'HE BEDEMPTION-womi: OF CHRIST. Students of the New Testament :find a larger and deeper meaning in this glowing _promise than that whic~ would limit it to the resuscitation of IsraeL To our consciousness the Lord, who 1s "the Plague of death" is Jehovah-Jesus. He became incarnate" that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, and deli".~r them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage" (Heh. 11. 14, 15). As the great Teacher, he pro- claimed himself to be" the Resurrection and the Life" (John xi. 25); and be sealed this testimony by rebuking disease of every kind, and even raising the dead. Most of all, he was himself" obedient unto dea.th;" and by his own decease upou the cross he has "r&DBOmed his people from the power of the grave." Di vine justice had put a dart iuto death'e hand to slay us therewith for our sins; but Jesus, in dying for us, satisfied en. xm. 1-16.] THE BOOK OF HOSEA. 417