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Expositor's Bible Commentary Hosea 5:1 Hear ye this, O priests; and hearken, ye house of Israel; and give ye ear, O house of the king; for judgment is toward you, because ye have been a snare on Mizpah, and a net spread upon Tabor. 2. PRIESTS AND PRINCES FAIL Hosea 5:1-14 The line followed in this paragraph is almost parallel to that of chapter 4, running out to a prospect of invasion. But the charge is directed solely against the chiefs of the people, and the strictures of Hosea 7:7 ff. upon the political folly of the rulers are anticipated. "Hear this, O Priests, and hearken, House of Israel, and House of the King, give ear. For on you is the sentence!" You who have hitherto been the judges, this time shall be judged. "A snare have ye become at Mizpeh, and a net spread out upon Tabor, and a pit have they made deep upon Shittim; but I shall be the scourge of them all. I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hid from me-for now hast thou played the harlot, Ephraim, Israel is defiled." The worship on the high places, whether nominally of Jehovah or not, was sheer service of Ba’alim. It was in the interest both of the priesthood and of the rulers to multiply these sanctuaries, but they were only traps for the people. "Their deeds will not let them return to their God; for a harlot spirit is in their midst, and Jehovah," for all their oaths by Him, "they have not known. But the pride of Israel shall testify to his face; and Israel and Ephraim shall stumble by their guilt-stumble also shall Judah with them." By Israel’s pride many understand God. But the term is used too opprobriously by Amos to allow us to agree to this. The phrase must mean that Israel’s arrogance, or her proud prosperity, by the wounds which it feels in this time of national decay, shall itself testify against the people-a profound ethical symptom to which we shall return when treating of Repentance. Yet the verse may be rendered in harmony with the context: "the pride of Israel shall be humbled to his face. With their sheep and their cattle they go about to seek Jehovah, and shall not find" Him"; He hath drawn off from them. They have been unfaithful to Jehovah, for they have begotten strange children." A generation has grown up who are not His. "Now may a month devour them with their portions!" Any month may bring the swift invader. Hark! the alarum of war! How it reaches to the back of the land! "Blow the trumpet in Gibeah the clarion in Ramah Raise the slogan, Beth-Aven: ‘After thee Benjamin!’" "Ephraim shall become desolation in the day of rebuke! Among the tribes of Israel I have made known what is certain!" At this point ( Hosea 5:10 ) the discourse swerves from the religious to the political leaders of Israel; but as the princes were included with the priests in the exordium ( Hosea 5:1 ), we can hardly count this a new oracle. "The princes of Judah are like landmark-re-movers"-commonest cheats in Israel-"upon them will I pour out My wrath like water. Ephraim is oppressed, crushed is his right, for he willfully went after vanity. And I am as the moth to Ephraim, and as rottenness to the house of Judah." Both kingdoms have begun to fall to pieces, for by this time Uzziah of Judah also is dead, and the weak politicians are in charge whom Isaiah satirized. "And Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah his sore; and Ephraim went to Asshur and sent to King Jareb-King Combative, King Pick-Quarrel," a nickname for the Assyrian monarch. The verse probably refers to the tribute which Mena-hem sent to Assyria in 738. If so, then Israel has drifted full five years into her "thick night." "But he cannot heal you, nor dry up your sore. For I, Myself, am like a lion to Ephraim, and like a young lion to the house of Judah. I, I rend and go My way; I carry off and there is none to deliver." It is the same truth which Isaiah expressed with even greater grimness. God Himself is His people’s sore; and not all their statecraft nor alliances may heal what He inflicts. Priests and Princes, then, have alike failed. A greater failure is to follow. THE THICK NIGHT OF ISRAEL Hosea 4:1-19 ; Hosea 5:1-15 ; Hosea 6:1-11 ; Hosea 7:1-16 ; Hosea 8:1-14 ; Hosea 9:1-17 ; Hosea 10:1-15 ; Hosea 11:1-12 ; Hosea 12:1-14 ; Hosea 13:1-16 ; Hosea 14:1-9 It was indeed a "thick night" into which this Arthur of Israel stepped from his shattered home. The mists drive across Hosea’s long agony with his people, and what we see, we see blurred and broken. There are stumbling and clashing; crowds in drift; confused rallies; gangs of assassins breaking across the highways; doors opening upon lurid interiors full of drunken riot. Voices, which other voices mock, cry for a dawn that never comes. God Himself is Laughter, Lightning, a Lion, a Gnawing Worm. Only one clear note breaks over the confusion-the trumpet summoning to war. Take courage, O great heart! Not thus shall it always be! There wait thee, before the end, of open Visions at least two-one of Memory and one of Hope, one of Childhood and one of Spring. Past this night, past the swamp and jungle of these fetid years, thou shalt see thy land in her beauty, and God shall look on the face of His Bride. Chapters 4-14 are almost indivisible. The two Visions just mentioned, chapters 11 and Hosea 14:3-9 , may be detached by virtue of contributing the only strains of gospel which rise victorious above the Lord’s controversy with His people and the troubled story of their sins. All the rest is the noise of a nation falling to pieces, the crumbling of a splendid past. And as decay has no climax and ruin no rhythm, so we may understand why it is impossible to divide with any certainty Hosea’s record of Israel’s fall. Some arrangement we must attempt, but it is more or less artificial, and to be undertaken for the sake of our own minds, that cannot grasp so great a collapse all at once. Chapter 4 has a certain unity, and is followed by a new exordium, but as it forms only the theme of which the subsequent chapters are variations, we may take it with them as far as Hosea 7:7 ; after which there is a slight transition from the moral signs of Israel’s dissolution to the political-although Hoses still combines the religious offences of idolatry with the anarchy of the land. These form the chief interest to the end of chapter 10. Then breaks the bright Vision of the Past, chapter 11, the temporary victory of the Gospel of the Prophet over his Curse. In chapters 12-14:2 we are plunged into the latter once more, and reach in Hosea 14:3 if. the second bright vision, the Vision of the Future. To each of these phases of Israel’s Thick Night-we can hardly call them Sections-we may devote a chapter of simple exposition, adding three chapters more of detailed examination of the main doctrines we shall have encountered on our way-the Knowledge of God, Repentance, and the Sin against Love. A PEOPLE IN DECAY: 1 MORALLY Hosea 4:1-19 - Hosea 7:7 PURSUING the plan laid down in the last chapter, we now take the section of Hosea’s discourse which lies between chapter 4 and Hosea 7:7 . Chapter 4 is the only really separable bit of it; but there are also slight breaks at Hosea 5:15 and Hosea 7:2 . So we may attempt a division into four periods: 1. Chapter 4, which states God’s general charge against the people; 2 Hosea 5:1-14 , which discusses the priests and princes; 3 Hosea 5:15 - Hosea 7:2 , which abjures the people’s attempts at repentance; and 4 Hosea 7:3-7 , which is a lurid spectacle of the drunken and profligate court. All these give symptoms of the moral decay of the people, -the family destroyed by impurity, and society by theft and murder; the corruption of the spiritual guides of the people; the debauchery of the nobles; the sympathy of the throne with evil, -with the despairing judgment that such a people are incapable even of repentance. The keynotes are these: "No truth, nor real love, nor knowledge of God in the land. Priest and Prophet stumble. Ephraim and Judah stumble. I am as the moth to Ephraim. What can I make of thee, Ephraim? When I would heal them, their guilt is only the more exposed." Morally, Israel is rotten. The prophet, of course, cannot help adding signs of their political incoherence. But these he deals with more especially in the part of his discourse which follows chapter 7:7. Hosea 5:15 I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offence, and seek my face: in their affliction they will seek me early. 3. REPENTANCE FALLS Hosea 5:15 - Hosea 7:2 Seeing that their leaders are so helpless, and feeling their wounds, the people may themselves turn to God for healing, but that will be with a repentance so shallow as also to be futile. They have no conviction of sin, nor appreciation of how deeply their evils have eaten. This too facile repentance is expressed in a prayer which the Christian Church has paraphrased into one of its most beautiful hymns of conversion. Yet the introduction to this prayer, and its own easy assurance of how soon God will heal the wounds He has made, as well as the impatience with which God receives it, oblige us to take the prayer in another sense than the hymn which has been derived from it. It offers but one more symptom of the optimism of this light-hearted people, whom no discipline and no judgment can impress with the reality of their incurable decay. They said of themselves, "The bricks are fallen, let us build with stones," and now they say just as easily and airily of their God, "He hath torn" only "that He may heal: "we are fallen, but" He will raise us up again in a day or two." At first it is still God who speaks. "I am going My way, I am returning to My own place, until they feel their guilt and seek My face. When trouble comes upon them, they will soon enough seek Me, saying":- "Come and let us return to Jehovah; For He hath rent, that He may heal us, And hath wounded, that He may bind us up. He will bring us to life in a couple of days; On the third day He will raise us up again, That we may live in His presence." "Let us know, let us follow up to know, Jehovah: As soon as we seek Him, we shall find Him And He shall come to us like the winter-rain, Like the spring-rain, pouring on the land!" But how is this fair prayer received by God? With incredulity, with impatience. What can I make of thee, Ephraim? what can I make of thee, Judah? since your love is like the morning cloud and like the dew so early gone. Their shallow hearts need deepening. Have they not been deepened enough? "Wherefore I have hewn" them "by the prophets, I have slain them by the words of My mouth, and My judgment goeth forth like the lightning. For real love have I desired, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt-offerings." That the discourse comes back to the ritual is very intelligible. For what could make repentance stem so easy as the belief that forgiveness can be won by simply offering sacrifices? Then the prophet leaps upon what each new year of that anarchy revealed afresh-the profound sinfulness of the people. "But they in human fashion have transgressed the covenant! There"-he will now point out the very spots-"have they betrayed Me! Gilead is a city of evil-doers: stamped with the bloody footprints; assassins in troops; a gang of priests murder on the way to Shechem. Yea, crime have they done. In the house of Israel I have seen horrors: there Ephraim hath played the harlot: Israel is defiled-Judah as well." Truly the sinfulness of Israel is endless. Every effort to redeem them only discovers more of it. "When I would turn, when I would heal Israel, then the guilt of Ephraim displays itself and the evils of Samaria," these namely: "that they work fraud and the thief cometh in"-evidently a technical term for housebreaking -" while abroad a crew" of highwaymen foray. And they never think in their hearts that all their evil is recorded by Me. Now have their deeds encompassed them: they are constantly before Evidently real repentance on the part of such a people is impossible. As Hosea said before, "Their deeds will not let them return." { Hosea 5:4 } The Expositor's Bible Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com . 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Hear ye this, O priests; and hearken, ye house of Israel; and give ye ear, O house of the king; for judgment is toward you. Hosea 5:1 God in ways of judgment Jeremiah Burroughs. Here is a summons to all sorts of judgment. Three classes are named, "priests, people, house of the king." All sorts are cited to judgment, for corruption was gone over all. 1. When God comes in ways of judgment, He expects we should seriously incline our minds to what He is doing. We should not only "hear," but "hearken," and "give ear." We are bound to hearken and to give ear to God's commanding word; but if we refuse it, He will have us to hear and give ear to His threatening word; and if that be refused, He will force us to hear and give ear to His condemning word. 2. Generality in sins is no means to escape God's judgments. With men "one and all" is a word of security. Men think, I do but as others do, and I shall escape as well as they. With men this is somewhat, with God it is nothing; though all sorts offend, yet there is never a whir the more security thereby unto any. 3. The priests have usually been the causes of all the wickedness in, and judgments on, a nation. 4. The people will usually go the way the king and priests go. But they are not to be excused on this ground. 5. Kings and princes must have sin charged upon them, and be made to know that they are under the threats of God, as well as others. The charge is not on evil counsellors, but on the house of the king itself. Evil princes may be as great a cause why there are evil counsellors, as evil counsellors why there are evil princes. Evil counsellors usually see what the design of a prince is, and what is suitable to his disposition, and they cherish that with their wicked counsels. 6. Though kings are to be reproved for sin, some due respect ought to be shown to them. 7. When God pleads against us, let us not disregard. If we do so when He begins to plead His cause with us, if we neglect it because judgment is not upon us, it will proceed to a sentence. ( Jeremiah Burroughs. ) Ye Nets to catch souls Jeremiah Burroughs. How cunningly have men laid such nets! They say it is but yielding a little to a thing enjoined by authority; besides, it is really unimportant, and is countenanced by the example of many learned and godly men; yea, and why should you hinder yourself of the good you may do? It is after all a mere matter of circumstance connected with decency and order, and consistent with much devotion, and by yielding as far as we can, we may gain papists; none but a company of simple people oppose these ancient customs, which can plead the precedent of the fathers of the Church, yea, of many martyrs who have shed their blood. Thus many souls have been caught, as a bird in a snare, with these lines and twigs thus cunningly twisted together; and so caught that they could not tell how to get out, but being once involved in the meshes were ensnared more and more: as a bird once caught in the net, by its very flutterings is the more entangled; so men, when they yielded a little, could not tell where to stop, but at last have gone so far, and been so completely ensnared as to be wholly unable to extricate them selves, but by their very efforts have become more deeply involved. And the truth is, at length even their consciences have ceased to disquiet them: as a bird, that is perhaps at first alarmed when the net is but stirred, after a while loses its fear. ( Jeremiah Burroughs. ) Mizpah and Tabor E. B. Pusey, D. D. Mizpah, the scene of the solemn covenant of Jacob with Laban, and of his signal protection by God, lay in the mountainous part of Gilead on the east of Jordan. Tabor was the well known (traditional) mountain of the Transfiguration, which rises out of the midst of the plain of Jezreel or Esdraelon, about a thousand feet high, and in the form of a sugar loaf. Of Mount Tabor it is related by St. that birds were still snared upon it. But something more seems intended than the mere likeness of birds taken in the snare of the fowler. This was to be seen everywhere. The prophet has selected places on both sides of Jordan, which were probably centres of corruption, or special scenes of wickedness. Mizpah, being a sacred place in the history of the patriarch Jacob, was probably, like Gilgal, and other sacred places, desecrated by idolatry. Tabor was the scene of God's deliverance by Barak. There, by encouraging idolatries, they became hunters, not pastors, of souls. There is an old Jewish tradition that liers in wait were set in these two places to intercept and murder those Israelites who persisted in going up to worship at Jerusalem. ( E. B. Pusey, D. D. ) God's judicial process and sentence George Hutcheson. The plain meaning is, that as fowlers and hunters lay snares and nets for birds and beasts on the mountains of Israel; so their priests and rulers, by their erroneous doctrine, fraudulent counsels, subtle edicts, and profane example, and countenancing of sin, deceived the people, and ensnared them to follow idolatry. Doctrine — 1. There is no rank, but they will be found to have guiltiness to lay to heart, in a time when God pleads a controversy with a land. 2. As the Word of God doth reach and oblige all ranks of persons, be in what eminency they will; and as the Lord's faithful servants must preach against the sins of all, without respect of person; so the general overspreading of sin is no way to escape judgments, but rather to hasten them. 3. When God is coming against a people in judgment, it concerns them to be very serious in considering what He saith from His Word; and He will at last force audience and attention from the most stubborn. 4. The Lord's contending with His people by His Word is not an ordinary challenge, as of one displeased only, but the judicial procedure and sentence of the Supreme Judge. 5. God may testify much of His anger against a people, in the teachers and rulers He gives them, as being fit means to ripen them for judgment. 6. Subtle snares and insinuations are more dangerous for drawing men wrong than open violences. 7. It is a great sin in men when they prove a snare to others, or by their insinuations, example, or policy, draw them to sin against God. ( George Hutcheson. ) The revolters are profound to make slaughter. Hosea 5:2 The deep ways of apostates and false worshippers Jeremiah Burroughs. There can be no blacker brand on a people or a man than this — he is an apostate, a revolter. We must understand this, their revolting, especially in reference to their falling off from the true worship of God to their idolatry. 1. It is a dangerous thing to venture on the beginnings of false worship, especially when the tide is flowing in. 2. It is a dangerous thing to be deeply rooted in superstitious ways. By custom men become deeply rooted. 3. The hearts of apostates are the most deeply rooted in wickedness. 4. Idolaters, especially apostates, are profound and deep. Only those who have the Spirit of God that.searches" the deep things, of God, are likely to stand out against the deep policies of idolaters. God calls their "sacrifices" making "slaughter," by way of reproach. ( Jeremiah Burroughs. ) I have been a Rebuker of them all Marg. "correction." The sin of the people was increased by the circumstance that God had not ceased by His prophets to recall the Israelites to a sound mind, since they might not have been wholly irreclaimable. Or God may be thought of here as complaining that He had been an object of dislike to the Israelites, as though He said, "When I sent My prophets, they could not bear to be admonished, because My Word was too bitter for them." Reproofs are not easily endured by men. What is clear is that the people of Israel were not only apostates, but hopelessly contumacious and refractory in their wickedness. ( John Calvin . ) I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hid from Me. Hosea 5:3 Knowledge as a basis of judgment Jeremiah Burroughs. To know Ephraim is to know all his shifts, evasions, and cunning devices, all his plots, pretences, and base ends. 1. God's eye is upon the secrets of men's hearts. 2. God's eye upon our hearts and ways is a special means to humble us. 3. God will deal with men according to their present ways. 4. Defiled worship exceedingly defiles the souls of people. 5. A morally and religiously defiled nation is near to ruin. ( Jeremiah Burroughs. ) God's knowing E. B. Pusey, D. D. Emphasis is laid on the "I." God had known Ephraim all along. However deep they may have laid their plans of blood, I have all along known them; nothing of them has been hid from Me. Even now, when under a fair outward show, they are veiling the depth of their sin, when they think their way is hid in darkness, I know their doings, that they are defiling themselves. Sin never wants specious excuse. Although (in some way unknown to us) not interfering with our free will, known unto God are our thoughts and words and deeds, before they are framed, while they are framed, while they are being spoken and done; known to Him is all which we do, and all which, under any circumstances, we should do. This He knows with a knowledge before the things were. How strange, then, to think of hiding from God a secret sin, when He knew, before He created thee, that He created thee liable to this very temptation, and to be assisted amidst it with just that grace which thou art resisting. ( E. B. Pusey, D. D. ) Nothing hid from God Sunday School Chronicle. While the Americans were blockading Cuba, several captains endeavoured to elude their vigilance by night, trusting that the darkness would conceal them as they passed between the American war ships. But in almost every case, the dazzling rays of a searchlight frustrated the attempt, and the fugitive vessel was captured by the Americans. The brilliant searchlight, sweeping the broad ocean and revealing even the smallest craft on its surface, is but a faint type of the Eternal Light from which no sinner can hide his sin. ( Sunday School Chronicle. ) They will not frame their doings to turn unto their God. Hosea 5:4 Framing the doings Robert Tuck, B. A. This is one of those strong Old English expressions which have been retained in our north country speech. People say, "He frames well," meaning of a new servant, he sets hopefully to his work, he shows adaptation. Hosea lived at the time when Israel, whose sin had ripened before Judah's, was beginning to suffer its punishments. Hosea directs the eye of Judah to the miseries falling on Israel, bidding her take warning and hasten to turn back from all her wicked ways to God. In the case of Israel there is a kind of hopelessness that they would ever repent, and the text expresses this hopelessness, — "They will not frame their doings," etc. Such a description of men's state in relation to God is suitable to every generation. I. EVERY MAN'S FIRST DUTY IS TO TURN UNTO HIS GOD. Shew it is his duty from these considerations. 1. The claims and relations of God. The eye of every created thing but man is towards God. Whatever view may be taken of those relations — Creator, King, Father — this is certain, God ought to be something to every man — ought to be all that He can possibly be. Man should turn to Him. 2. The conditions of our being. Our condition is one of dependence. Possibly one of gracious friendship with our Creator. We are certainly under temporary conditions on which depend the eternal conditions. 3. The fact that man is turned from God. None are disposed to deny that fact. The consequences are too plainly written on the care-burdened earth — too certainly stamped in on human consciousness. Men everywhere are trying to turn to God, then they must be turned from Him. 4. The special call made by God, in His mercy, through Christ. All natural calls of God are sealed and intensified by His extraordinary call. A new pressure God has put on men — urging them to Himself in Christ. The voice of the Cross is, "Turn ye; turn ye"! It is man's greatest duty, because not concerning the transitory but the eternal, not the temporary but the essential. A true life is a continual turning to God, as the needle to the pole. II. PRECISELY IN THIS FIRST AND GREATEST DUTY MOST MEN FAIL. One of the most constant efforts of a Christian ministry is to point out the various hindrances keeping men from God, their self-delusions, their religious delusions, their procrastinations. Men's doings are the apparent hindrance; men's bad wills are the real hindrance. By "men's doings" are not meant single, isolated acts, but sets and courses of conduct, habits of life, moulds in which conduct is regularly cast. These become such power for evil, because they re-act on the will, enslaving it. So the Old Testament and our Lord and His apostles all say so much about men's doings. What will be the real seeking after God? Its fountain must be in the heart. Penitent yearning of the soul for God. Its expression must be in confession and prayer. The test and proof of its sincerity must be a changed conduct. In every case there will be a suitable "framing of the doings." Men are not without heart desires for God, nor without lip confessions and seekings; but how few can stand the further test of the way in which they "frame their doings." Let us test ourselves by the Scripture terms for the spirit of the ungodly. 1. Lust of the flesh. Indulgence of bodily passion. What have we given up in order to turn to God? 2. Lust of the eyes. The higher pleasures of mind. 3. Pride of life. The great sin of our times. Further, test our religious profession by our unforgivings and envyings. What sincerity then is there in our turning to God? This is the Lord's reproach. "Ye will not frame your doings to turn unto God." A man's sincerity is seen in what he will give up for an object. Illustrate from the going to war; framing their doings to show their patriotism. God looks for a like sincerity. But, after all, behind the doings is the real thing keeping men from turning to God. It is the bad will, the self-centred will. And so this must be the Divine reproach, "Ye will not come unto Me, that ye might have life." ( Robert Tuck, B. A. ) Framing the doings Jeremiah Burroughs. The words in the original are very elegant. and Vulgate render,: "They will not give themselves to think of such a thing." Mercer and Castellius , "They will not do their endeavours." Tremellius , "They do not apply any action of theirs any way to turn unto the Lord." Drusius and Pagninus , "Their custom in their ways of sin will not suffer them to turn to the Lord." and Calvin , "They give not their counsels, their studies, to turn to the Lord." They will not give their mind to turn to the Lord, they will not put forth themselves into any posture that way. It is true, we can do nothing without the Lord, but yet the sin lies in our wills rather than in our power, therefore the will is charged by God. They cannot turn unto God of themselves, but yet they may do somewhat, they may bend themselves upon it, they may think of it, they may attend upon the means. 1. Israel will not so much as set his heart to think of anything that will bring him unto God. Not so much as to think, are my ways right or not right? 2. Though a man cannot turn to God, yet through the common work of God's Spirit he may do this, he may be willing to hear and consider what is said for the ways of God. 3. They will not wait on God in the use of means. 4. They will not apply the rule of the Word to their actions. Whatsoever they think will make for their own cuds, that they will follow. 5. The light and power they have they will not use. 6. They will not join in with the work of God. 7. They will adhere to their old customs, to their former ways, to what they have received from their forefathers, and been trained up in. 8. They will take and improve to the uttermost every advantage they can have against the ways of God. If we will not frame our doings to turn unto the Lord, He may break us, break that frame which we raise in our own imaginations.Observe —(1) Apostates seldom have any inclination to turn unto God. No meltings of spirit, no yieldings, but their hearts are hardened, and they depart farther and farther from God.(2) True repentance is not only to leave evil, and to do good, but to turn unto God as our God.(3) It is God's just judgment to give men over to the devil to be blinded and hardened when they forsake Him and His truth.(4) Impetuousness of spirit blinds the mind. "The spirit of whoredoms is in them"; and then follows, "they have not known the Lord." Whatsoever is said against their way cannot convince them. When the mind is possessed by passion, love, fear, sorrow, or any other strong affection, and carried out powerfully to the object that excites them, it will not listen to, it will not understand anything urged against it; the voice of reason is unheeded, charming never so wisely. Some have a spirit of sluggishness and love their ease; a spirit of covetousness, and they must have their estates; a spirit of ambition, and they must have their honour and respect; a spirit of pride and self-love, and they must not on any account grant that they are ignorant and mistaken; therefore they cannot see the truths, the ways of God. ( Jeremiah Burroughs. ) Life training H. Woodcock. The perfection and beauty of all life — vegetable, animal, intellectual, and moral — depends largely on "framing," by which I mean culture. Scotland was once a barren soil, but industry and skill have turned it into one of the most fruitful and prolific lands to farmers in Europe. More: the orchid would not be so popular as it is, but for the care and skill of the botanist: the rose would not be the beautiful flower that it is, but for the gardener: nor would the carnation, nor the chrysanthemum be the favourites they are, but for the care bestowed upon them by professionals. The same law applies to the feathered tribes. It is a well-known fact that the almost endless variety of pigeons we have in England sprang from the common blue-rock pigeon; and Dr. Drummond says that if all these pigeons could be banished to some distant island for a few years, and their descendants brought back, they would be totally changed; for they would have become blue-rock pigeons. The same law applies with redoubled force to man. Let a man neglect his body for a little while, and he would become little better than a beast or a savage. Let a man neglect his mind, and disorder will follow. Let him neglect his moral nature, and his sympathies will be stunted, and his conscience will cease to commend him when he does right, and to warn him when he does wrong. This was the sin of those to whom the prophet spoke: "They will not frame their doings to turn unto their God." I. WHAT IS THIS LIFE FRAMING TO WHICH THE WORD OF GOD CALLS US? 1. Each man possesses a soul, which must exist for ever amongst the spirits of the redeemed, or be consigned to eternal punishment. 2. Some men tell us that the brain is the greatest power in man; others, that that power lies in the heart; while others contend that it lies in the will. The fact is, Christian character calls all these powers into requisition ( 1 Timothy 6:9-11 ). How is this character to be secured?(1) There must be repentance.(2) Prayer and self-denial. These are as necessary to expel the evil propensities of your nature as they were to expel devils in our Saviour's day.(3) Faith in Christ.(4) All men can live such a life if they will. A man may be humble in his origin, and poor in his circumstances, but these things do not prevent him rising to the dignity of a perfect man in Christ. II. LOOK AT SOME OF THE REASONS WHICH MEN URGE FOR THE NEGLECT OF THIS DUTY. "They will not frame their doings to turn unto their God." The reasons which men urge for the neglect of this important work are, at best, mere excuses, and too often hollow pretexts. 1. Some plead the unfavourable situation in which they are placed. Their companions stand in the way. They would sneer at them, revile them, or even persecute them if they could. To read the Bible, to pray, and to talk about religion in their presence would be impossible. Oh, man, where is thy courage, where is thy manhood? 2. Others plead the pressing claims of their worldly occupations. These are allowed to take precedence. Thought, conversation, and care are bestowed on houses, lands, and worldly wealth, as if there were no better inheritance for man. 3. Business is urged as an excuse. They have to build their house, educate their children, provide for their families, and these leave them no time to carry into effect that which they know to be their duty to God and to themselves. Now observe —(1) There is time enough for every one to save his soul, Others find time to do their duty to God, and you can if you will but try.(2) That family duties and cares need not stand in your way, for the calm influences of religion are just what you need to help you to bear life's heavy cares,(3) There are methods of amassing wealth in our day which are hurtful to men and abominable to God. 4. Others plead the strength of their passion. They are naturally intemperate, or unchaste, or dishonest, or grasping. 5. All these excuses indicate a shocking indifference to the claims of God upon you, and show, besides, an amazing ignorance of religion. They show that you don't understand the necessity of religion, as you under stand the necessity of food for the hungry, raiment for the naked, or houses for the homeless. You undervalue its importance as compared with other interests. 6. What does God say to these excuses? ( H. Woodcock. ) The guilt and danger of refusing to serve God National Preacher. Men will not act upon the principle that the great business of life is to serve and please God, and enjoy His favour, here and hereafter. 1. They will not treasure up that truth which is the only medium of sanctification. 2. They will store up folly till there is no room in their minds for Divine and sanctifying truth. 3. Men so associate themselves together that it would rupture all their friendships to become the friends of God. 4. Men so commit themselves against religion, the Bible, the Sabbath, the people of God, etc., as to cause them great embarrassment when there shall be occasion to take back these commitments. 5. Men so locate themselves and enter such employments as to require a change, and perhaps a rupture of all their earthly relation. ships, should they turn to serve and please the Lord. 6. They pollute their consciences with those acts of moral defilement which will greatly pain them should they become the children of God. 7. They advance such sentiments with regard to Divine things before the ungodly that should they change their course they wilt be thereby much hindered in their efforts to do good. 8. All their habits of thinking, speaking, and acting axe at variance with the habits of godliness. 9. They put off religion until all their preparation for eternity is crowded into the few last moments of life. Remarks —(1) What a calamity it is that men will not use a little of their wisdom in the matters of eternity, and not be continually blocking up their way to heaven.(2) The people of God have great cause for gratitude that He has not suffered them to go on to a returnless distance from Him.(3) Every benevolent man will be doing all in his power to hold back his fellow-men from ruin.(4) It would be wise if men would calculate to be saved, and be shaping their ways for heaven. ( National Preacher. ) Moral framework Joseph Parker, D. D. s: — They cannot set up any framework of God; they are poor moral carpenters; their fingers lose all skill when they seek to put up something that shall have the appearance at least of morality and goodness. They no sooner set up one side of the edifice than the other fails down, and the framework will not hold together, because the spirit is wrong. Away with your mechanical morality; away with your frameworks of honour and social security, even of education when it is meant as a substitute for moral earnestness and purity. It is the spirit that must be renewed; we do not want a framework, but a genius of heart, an atmosphere of soul, a new manhood. "Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again." Make the tree good, and the fruit will be good. Do not trouble yourselves about the framework. You are not carpenters, you are men; you are not mechanics, you are souls. Do not trifle with the tragedy of life. ( Joseph Parker, D. D. ) The use of means George Hutcheson. A people are yet the more inexcusable in their impenitency when they will not so much as think on endeavouring or using the outward means which might tend towards repentance. They might have fought and yet not come speed, because of their unsoundness and formality in their way; but they were either so ignorant, or malicious and impious, as they did not so much as endeavour to bend their course that way. They would not "frame their doings." ( George Hutcheson. ) Outward conduct preventive of inward repentance J. Wolfendale. Dr. Pusey says, "The rendering of the margin, although less agreeable to the Hebrew, gives a striking sense, 'Their doings will not suffer them to turn unto their God' Not so much that their habits of sin had got an absolute mastery over them, so as to render repentance impossible, but rather that it was impossible that they should turn inwardly, while they did not turn outwardly. Their evil doings, so long as they persevered in doing them, took away all heart, whereby to turn to God with a solid conversion." . Sin begets sin, and the longer men indulge in it the weaker they become in good desire and earnest resolution. But the Hebrew gives another idea. "They," the people in general, Ephraim is no longer addressed personally, "will not frame," lit., will not give (LXX ??? ?????? ; Vulg., Non dabunt cogitationes suas). Their will is concerned, the seat and centre of their life is wrong, and so long as that is alienated from God ( Ephesians 4:18 ), they do not, they cannot frame their doings. They have created and cherished a mighty impulse within them which drives them on, like the devils drove the swine into the deep. This implies resistance to God and His Spirit ( Acts 7:51 ). ( J. Wolfendale. ) Self-hinderers Dr. Pepper in "Christian Standard. " Betsy, an old coloured cook, was moaning around the kitchen the other day, when her mistress asked her if she was ill "No, ma'am, not 'zactly," said Betsy. "But the fac' is, I don't feel ambition 'nough to get out of my own way. As we read this, our memories ran back over a long line of meetings, in which we recalled the faces of many, who after long seeking have never been converted, or others who have never grown in grace, or still others who have never been entirely sanctified, because like Betsy, they have not had ambition enough to get out of their own way. Almost every sort of difficulty has been suggested, perhaps they will can didly confess that Betsy has exactly hit it. ( Dr. Pepper in "Christian Standard. " ) Necessary preliminaries to a godly life Homilist. Few have any notion that there is a certain way to repent and believe, and fewer still indicate the nature of that way. How are men so to frame their doings as to turn unto their God? I. BY THINKING ON CERTAIN SUBJECTS. We act from motives when we act as men. But what are the motives? The creation of our own thoughts. The man who centres his thoughts on the advantages of fame, or wealth, or knowledge, turns to their pursuit. His thoughts excite his feelings, and his feelings urge him to a resolution. If I am to repent I must think of my sins in relation to the character of the Holy God, and the self-sacrificing Christ. It is only as I muse that the fires of penitence will burn. If a man is to turn to any new course of conduct, he must have new motives, and if he is to have new motives, he must have new thoughts. II. BY THINKING ON CERTAIN SUBJECTS IN A CERTAIN WAY. 1. With concentration. 2. With persistency. 3. With devotion. III. BY THINKING ON CERTAIN SUBJECTS WITH A PRACTICAL INTENT. Merely to increase our theological knowledge, or make our feelings glow with religious sentiment would be of little service, but to think in order to translate the thought into action, to embody the idea in the life — this is the way. Thoughtlessness is the curse of humanity. Think on right subjects; think in a right way; think with a practical intent. ( Homilist. ) They have not known the Lord Ignorance of the national Jehovah By this sentence the prophet extenuates not the Sin of the people, but, on the contrary, amplifies their ingratitude, because they had forgotten their God, who had so indulgently treated them. As they had been redeemed by God's hand; as the teaching of the law had continued among them; as they had been preserved to that day through God's constant kindness, — it was truly an evidence of monstrous ignorance that they could in an instant adopt ungodly forms of worship, and embrace those corruptions which they knew were condemned in the law. It was surely an inexcusable wickedness in the people thus to withdraw themselves from their God. This is the reason why the prophet now says that " they know not Jehovah." But if they were asked the cause, they could not have said that they had no light, for God had made known to them the way of salvation. Hence, that they knew not Jehovah was to be imputed to their perverseness; for, closing their eyes, they knowingly and wilfully ran headlong after those wicked devices which they knew, as it had been stated before, to be condemned by God. ( John Calvin . ) And the pride of Israel doth testify to His face: therefore shall Israel and Ephraim fall in their iniquity. Hosea 5:5 The fall of Israel Prof. Sayce. Tiglath pileser died in B.C. 727 , and was succeeded by Shalmaneser IV. The refusal of Hoshea to continue the annual tribute brought the new Assyrian monarch into the West. Tyre was besieged unsuccessfully, Hoshea carried away captive, and Samaria blockaded for three years. During the blockade Shalmaneser died, and the crown was seized by one of the Assyrian generals. The latter assumed the name of Sargon, in memory of the famous Babylonian monarch who had reigned so many centuries before. The capture of Samaria took place in his first year ( B.C. 722 ); 27,280 of its inhabitants were sent into exile, but only fifty chariots were found in the city. An Assyrian governor was appointed over it, who was commissioned to send each year to Nineveh the same tribute as that paid by Hoshea. The comparatively small number of Israelites who were carried into captivity shows that Sargon contented himself with removing only those persons and their families who had taken part in the revolt against him; in fact, Samaria was treated pretty much as Jerusalem was by Nebuchadnezzar in the time of Jehoiachin. The greater part of the old population was allowed to remain in its native land. This fact disposes of the modern theories which assume that the whole of the Ten Tribes were carried away. ( Prof. Sayce. ) Pride aggravating sin George Hutcheson. 1. It is a great aggravation of sin when men are swelled with conceit under it, so that their thoughts of themselves are nothing lessened, but they dare defend sin, please themselves in it, and rise against such as do reprove it, and be filled with proud impatience under corrections inflicted because of it. 2. As pride is a sin that will not conceal itself, so this sort of pride is a notorious proof of men's guiltiness which will justly condemn them, and plead for God in so doing. 3. Sin will certainly bring on ruin, especially when men are not only obstinate in it, but swelled with pride for all that. 4. God's judgments will be universal on all ranks, according as they have sinned. ( George Hutcheson. ) Pride before destruction The prophet, having condemned the Israelites on two accounts — for having departed from the true God — and for having obstinately refused every instruction, now adds, that God's vengeance was nigh at hand. "Testify then shall the pride of Israel in His face"; that is, Israel shall find what it is thus to resist God and His prophets. The prophet no doubt applies the word "pride" to their contempt of instruction, because they were so swollen with vain confidence as to think that wrong was done them whenever the prophets reproved them. It must at the same time be observed that they were thus refractory, because they were like persons inebriated with their own pleasures; for we know that while men enjoy prosperity, they are the more ins

5:1-7 The piercing eye of God saw secret liking and disposition to sin, the love the house of Israel had to their sins, and the dominion their sins had over them. Pride makes men obstinate in other sins. And as Judah was treading in the same steps, they would fall with Israel. By dealing treacherously with the Lord, men only deceive themselves. Those that go to seek the Lord with their flocks and their herds only, and not with their hearts and souls, cannot expect to find him; nor shall any speed who do not seek the Lord while he may be found. See how much it is our concern to seek God early, now, while it is the accepted time, and the day of salvation. 5:8-15 The destruction of impenitent sinners is not mere talk, to frighten them, it is a sentence which will not be recalled. And it is a mercy that we have timely warning given us, that we may flee from the wrath to come. Compliance with the commandments of men, who thwart the commandments of God, ripens a people for ruin. The judgments of God are sometimes to a sinful people as a moth, and as rottenness, or as a worm; as these consume the clothes and the wood, so shall the judgments of God consume them. Silently, they shall think themselves safe and thriving, but when they look into their state, shall find themselves wasting and decaying. Slowly, for the Lord gives them space to repent. Many a nation; as well as many a person, dies of a consumption. Gradually, God comes upon sinners with lesser judgments, to prevent greater, if they will be wise, and take warning. When Israel and Judah found themselves in danger, they sought the protection of the Assyrians, but this only helped to make their wound the worse. They would be forced to apply to God. He will bring them home to himself, by afflictions. When men begin to complain more of their sins than of their afflictions, then there begins to be some hope of them; and when under the conviction of sin, and the corrections of the rod, we must seek the knowledge of God. Those who are led by severe trials to seek God earnestly and sincerely, will find him a present help and an effectual refuge; for with him is plenteous redemption for all who call upon him. There is solid peace, and there only, where God is.