The Pulpit Commentary — Hosea — Section 424

Eut wind will come-a wind of Jehovah, rising up from the desert, and hie fountain will dry UEt and hie spring become dried. He plunders the trea.1111rlee of all splendid veSBele" (Delitzech). "This and the following verse set forth the devastation and destruction of the kingdom of the ten tribes, which was to precode the deliverance promised in that which precedes, While the promise was designed to afford consolation to the pious and encour11.gement to the penitent, the threatening wu equally necessary for the refractory and the profane" (Henderson). We shall take the words e.s suggest- mg a few remarks on the reverses of fortune in human life. ' I. Reverses in human fortune are SOMETIMES VERY STRIKING. Ephraim was" fruitful among his brethren." The very name signifies fruitfulness. Its territory was most fertile, its people the most numerous. (1) Its riches would give way to poverty. Ephraim was at once a rich and a populous tribe; but see the change predicted : " His spring shall become dry. . . . He shall spoil the treasure of all pleasant vessels." 'l'h8 enemy would invade the country, impoverish husbandry, check merchandise. (2) Its populousness would give way to paucity, The enemy would reduce its numbers and almost depopulate it. "His fountain shall be dried up." How great the reverse I and yet such reverses in human history are frequent. Saul, Herod, Nebuchadnezzar, Napoleon, are a few amongst millions of examples. Constantly do we see men hurled from the sunny mountain of opulence into the gloomy valley of poverty. Such reverses should teach us: 1. To hold all worldly good with a very light band. 2. To settle onr interests on the good that is permanent. " Labour not for the meat that perisheth." . :'· II. Reverses in human fortnne are GENERALLY BBOUGHT I ABOUT BY SF:COJ:-lDA.RY JNSTRUMENTALITY. "An east wind shall come, shall come from the wilderness." Nations, communities, and individuals may always trace their calamities 'to certain natural causes. If a kingdom decays, if a mercantile transaction breaks down, if a fortune is lost, man can generally trace the dispensation to some" east wind "-some' secondary agent. This should teach UR (I) to study -natural laws; '(2) 'to be diligent in checking all element,a inimical to human progress. •• IIL Reverses in human fortune are UNDER THE DIRECTION OF Gon. The change in the fortunes of Ephraim, although brought about by a variety of secondary agencies, was nevertheless under the superintendence of the Almighty. Though a country may be ruined by civil wars, or foreign invasions, or pestilential atmospheres, or unfruitful harvests bringing on famine, still Divine intelligence foresees all, and Divine power overrules all. Both true philosophy and religion teach us to trace all the events of life to him. Some come directly from him; all are directed by him. Friendship and bereavement, prosperity and adversity, sickness and health, 11orrow and joy-he is in all. "The Lord gave, the Lord hath taken away." Learn (1) to acquiesce in his dispensa- tions; (2) to look to him for all that iA good.-D. T. Vers. I-4.-Baal-exaltatiO'TI,. The first clause is better read, "When Ephraim spake, there was trembling; he was exalted in Israel." The contrast is between what Ephraim once was, and what his offending in Ba.al had now brought him to. Oncti. he was great in Israel. He had authority, influence, power to inspire terror. Now he was but the wreck of his former self. He would be swept a.way like chaff before the whirlwind. I. THE FIRST FALSE STEP. (Ver. 1.) It is the first false step in sin which needs "pecially to be guarded against. Israel's first false step as a separate kingdom was the denial of God's spirituality, and the breach of his commandment, in the setting up of the worship of the calves. This was: l. Trespa,88 in a fundamental article. It was practically the denial of the Godhead. It made God like-not to corruptible man- but, worse, to four-footed beasts (Rom. i. 23). They called their worship still Jehovah- worsLip, but God repudiates it as in no sense his. It was really Baal-worship. God gives the sin its right name. 2. The admisBiO'TI, of a wrong principle. '!'he principl8 was that of self-will in religion. Setting aside God's commandment, Ephraim claimed to organize bis worship after his own heJlrt. He would have no law but his own will'. It was to gratify himself that be ba.d set up JlD independent kingdom. It was to gratify himself that he now set up the golden calves. Tbe adoption of e. wrong principle by an individual or nation is the sowing of a seed out of which Is sure to OR, XIII. 1-10.] TME BOOK OF nosEA. I 427