◄ Hosea 6:10 ►
In the house of Israel I have seen a horrible thing: Ephraim practices prostitution there, and Israel is defiled.
Sermons
Religion and IrreligionC. Jerdan Hosea 6:6-11
The Broken CovenantJ. Orr Hosea 6:7-11














Pulpit Commentary Homiletics
Divine Institutions Corrupted
Hosea 6:8
D. Thomas
Gilead is a city of them that work iniquity, and is polluted with blood. It is supposed that Gilead here means Ramoth-gilead, the metropolis of the mountainous region beyond Jordan and south of the fiver Jabbok, known by the name of Gilead (Joshua 21:28; 1 Kings 6:18). It was here that Jacob and Laban entered into a sacred covenant with each other. It was once a very sacred place; it was one of the celebrated cities of refuge (Deuteronomy 20:23; Joshua 23:28). The place, which was once a city of refuge, an institution of the God of heaven, had now been desecrated by wicked men, and become the scene of iniquity" and "blood." Observe two things -

I. That Divine institutions, specially designed for man's good, ARE OFTEN CORRUPTED BY HIM. Gilead, as a city of refuge, was of Divine ordinance, designed for special good. It was set apart for protecting men from the injustice of being put to death as murderers where the motive to murder did not exist, and thus preventing the shedding of innocent blood. But this very place for justice had now become the scene to "work iniquity," the place of mercy the scene that was now "polluted with blood." Thus men may - nay, they have done and still do - corrupt God's special ordinances for good. We say special ordinances, for all God's ordinances are for good. Whilst all places on earth are for the good of man, Gilead had a specific appointment.

1. The Bible is a special ordinance of God for good. Men have corrupted that, they do so sometimes by denying its truth altogether, but oftener by perverting its doctrines.

2. The gospel ministry is a special ordinance of God for good. From the beginning almost God set apart men for the special work of indoctrinating their fellow-men with the principles of everlasting rectitude and the doctrines of redemptive mercy - prophets, apostles, evangelists, pastors, etc. But men have sadly corrupted this Divine institution; few things on earth have been more corrupted by man than the ministry.

II. That Divine institutions specially designed for man's good, when corrupted, BECOME THE WORST OF ALL EVILS. Holy Gilead, once the scene of Divine mercy, was now filled with "iniquity" and "blood."

1. A corrupted Bible is the worst of all books. It does more mischief than any infidel productions. Political tyrannies, slaveries, wars, persecutions, have all been sanctioned and encouraged by a corrupted Bible. Alas l the millions of Christendom hate the Bible - not the Bible that God gave, but man's corrupted version of that Bible.

2. A corrupted pulpit is the worst of all ministries. Popes, archbishops, bishops, and the clergy in every grade in all Churches, have been found amongst the most intolerant despots and the most bloody persecutors of all times. They consecrate the banners of the warriors, they advocate the cause of slavery, they have ever been the prime obstructors to the promotion of liberty and the advancement of the universal rights of man. An old expositor has said, "The clergy, when wicked, are the worst of all men; none so cruel and bloody." It is time for the people to be taught that a pulpit is not necessarily a Christian or a useful thing. It may be - alas! it sometimes is - the corruptest and the most pernicious thing in the neighborhood in which it has a place. A man is not a saint because he calls himself a Christian; a building is not the "house of God" because it is called a church, a chapel, or a tabernacle; a forum is not sacred to the utterance of gospel truth because it is called a pulpit. Things called "sermons may sometimes have more wickedness in them than infidel tracts; places called the houses of God" may sometimes serve more effectually the cause of the devil than the theatres of pleasure-seekers or lecture-halls of skeptics. Mere names must not rule our judgment. It is the policy of the devil in these days to baptize his instruments with Christian titles. He is never more powerful than when he occupies the sacred desk, writes religious books, and quotes the Word of God. There are wolves in sheep's clothing, and false prophets now as ever. - D.T.

Biblical Illustrator
Come, and let us return unto the Lord.
Hosea 6:1
The characteristic marks of true penitence
Skeletons of Sermons.
These words are the expressions of that penitence which was excited in the Israelites by God's departure from them, and by His grace that accompanied the affliction.

I. THE CHARACTERISTIC MARKS OF TRUE PENITENCE. It will always be attended by —

1. A sense of our departure from God. With unregenerate men the thought of being at a distance from God never distresses. As soon as the grace of repentance is given, men see that they are as sheep gone astray.

2. An acknowledgment of affliction as a just chastisement for sin. The impenitent heart murmurs and rebels under the Divine chastisements: the penitent "hears the rod, and Him that appointed it."

3. A determination to return to God. When a man is once thoroughly awakened to a sense of his lost condition, he can no longer be contented with a formal round of duties. To hear of Christ, to seek Him, are from henceforth his chief desire, his supreme delight.

4. A desire that others should return to Him also. This is insisted on as characteristic of the great work that shall be accomplished in the latter day (Isaiah 2:3). The penitent feels it incumbent on him to labour for the salvation of others.

II. THE GROUNDS ON WHICH A PENITENT MAY TAKE ENCOURAGEMENT TO RETURN TO GOD.

1. From a general view of God's readiness to heal us.

2. From that particular discovery of it which we have in the wounds He has inflicted on us.Apply —

1. To those who have deserted God.

2. To those who are deserted by God.

(Skeletons of Sermons.)

Man's highest social action
Homilist.
The prophet calls on those who had been smitten, or sent into exile, to put away all confidence in an arm of flesh, to renounce all idolatries.

I. THAT SOCIETY IS AWAY FROM GOD. Not locally, of course: for the Great Spirit is with all and in all, but morally. Society is away from Him in its thoughts; away from Him in its sympathies; away from Him in its pursuits.

II. THAT ESTRANGEMENT FROM GOD IS THE SOURCE OF ALL ITS TRIALS. Because the prodigal left his father's home he got reduced to the utmost infamy and wretchedness. Moral separation from God is ruin. Cut the branch from the root and it withers; the river from its source, and it dries up; the planet from the sun, and it rushes into ruin. Nothing will remove the evils under which society is groaning but a return unto God. Legislation, commerce, science, literature, art, none of these will help it much so long as it continues away from Him.

III. THAT RETURN TO HIM IS A POSSIBLE WORK.

(Homilist.)

Luxury and ease
W. P. Lockhart.
I. THE FACT OF BACKSLIDING. Had there been no wandering from the Lord, there would have been no need of a return to Him. From passages in the histories of Solomon and David, as shewing how luxury and ease conduce to backsliding. Solomon would be now caned a child of God. He did start well. But the history of Solomon shows us that no amount of experience is in itself a safeguard. Whether young or old in the faith, we need the preserving grace of God from moment to moment. In Solomon's case the affinity with Pharaoh, and marriage with his daughter, are like the first links in a long chain of backsliding. Is it not often the case that believers, even when apparently walking in the fear of the Lord, may be cherishing some secret sin or indulgence, which, like a seed concealed in the earth, finally germinates and blossoms forth into open backsliding! Solomon fell through self-indulgence. And the Christian who is self-indulgent, who makes the means entrusted to him by God minister to his love of luxury and desire for worldly pomp, is on the high road to idolatry. God did not leave Solomon undisturbed in his idolatry and self-indulgence. The record of David's fall is given in 2 Samuel 11. Idleness is the parent of vice. Lurking lusts, encouraged by the quiet, creep out of their hiding-places, hold converse with the heart, and seek to drag him into all manner of sin. David fell before temptation, and set himself to commit further sin, in the hope of covering that already committed. This is almost invariably the case with the backslider.

II. God's dealings with the backslider. "He hath torn — He hath smitten." It is in mercy, and not in wrath, that God deals with His backsliding children. Punishment has for its object, the vindication of the authority of God as the moral Ruler. It is judicial as well as remedial. But its chief purpose is the backslider's restoration.

III. A GLIMMER OF FAITH ON THE PART OF THE BACKSLIDER. "He will heal us — He will bind us up." In the heart of the backslider there lies hidden the germ of a God-given faith, like seeds in a mummy case.

IV. THE GOODLY RESOLVE. "Come, and let us return unto the Lord." Some seek to heal their backslidings without dealing with God Himself. How are we to return? Through Jesus, the once crucified, the now risen and exalted One.

(W. P. Lockhart.)

Signs of true penitence
George Hutcheson.
I. WHEREVER THERE IS TRUE REPENTANCE, THERE WILL BE A RETURNING UNTO THE LORD.

1. A true penitent will be sensible, not only of straying from God, which hath made a distance between God and him, but that his straying hath begotten an averseness, and turned his back upon God, so that he needs to return.

2. A penitent will have a deep sense, that all other courses he has essayed in his straying from God, are but vanity.

II. THE ORDINARY FORERUNNER OF A TIME OF MERCY, IS THE LORD'S STIRRING UP HIS PEOPLE TO SEEK HIM. Here they are excited, and excite one another to this duty. "Come, and let us return," and this is their temper in a time of love.

(George Hutcheson.)

For He hath torn, and He will heal us
He hath torn, and He will heal us
J. Baldwin Brown, B. A.
The philosophy of the Divine judgments is here most explicitly expounded. The motive of every Divine judgment, within the limits of this life, is mercy. We see but dimly what may lie beyond this life. Here, at any rate, the one constant patient aim of God, by every means of influence which He wields, is to bring men unto Himself. It is important to remember, what some schools of Christian thought have strangely forgotten, that God's righteousness is not a righteousness which would be satisfied equally by the conversion, or by. the punishment of a sinner. We cannot abstract the righteousness from the living person who is also the Father of that sinner; and who loves him with such tenderness that He is capable of even an infinite sacrifice, that that child may not die but live. God's righteousness, God's justice, God's holiness, yearn for the restoration of the sinner to righteousness, quite as much as His mercy and His love. And through life they are spending all their arts and efforts to take him captive, and to bring him home. It is beginning to be fully recognised, in the physical sphere, that judgments are but rich blessings in disguise. There are indeed some dark passages of Scripture history which seem to contradict this principle: e.g., Pharaoh of the hardened heart. This cannot be fully explained, but it makes this terrible suggestion — what must be the doom of a heart that is hardened even against the Divine love? There is a growing hardness where the will is in it. The blow that is sent in mercy, if it fails to open the heart's sealed portals, strikes down. The heart hardened against God, hardens itself further. And this is His law, and part of the solemn conditions of our life. But there,, is nothing on earth irreparable while "we can repent and turn unto the Lord; for He hath torn, and He win heal us." There is absolutely nothing in the experience of the sinner, the sufferer, which God cannot transmute into joy. No calamity can long oppress the spirit which He wills to draw to the shield of His strength, and to rest on the bosom of His love. Or is the sorrow a remembrance of sin? With the word of forgiveness, the bitterness of the sorrow passes. God can forgive the iniquity of the sill IS it temptation? Believe that temptation is God's benignant ordinance for the trial and assay of spirits. God has not left you untroubled.

(J. Baldwin Brown, B. A.)

God's time for mercy
Jeremiah Burroughs.
1. When God's time of mercy is come, He puts a mighty spirit of seeking into men.

2. A joint turning to God is very honourable to god. "Come, and let us return."

3. Times of mercy are times of union.

4. True penitent hearts seek to get others to join with them.

5. In times of the greatest sufferings a truly penitent heart retains good thoughts of God.

6. a penitent heart is not a discouraged heart.

7. A repenting heart is not a discouraged, but a sustained heart. But we must not falsely encourage ourselves. Our hope is in God.

(Jeremiah Burroughs.)

He hath smitten, and He will bind us up
Hope for a bleeding Church
T. Vasey.
The text may be considered as the language of a Church.

I. SMARTING UNDER RECENT CHASTISEMENTS.

1. Shew the sufferings of such a Church.

2. These sufferings are to be received as from the hand of God.

3. And regarded as chastisements of God for the sins of the Church.

II. HOPING FOR A SPEEDY REVIVAL. That hope rests on the following grounds.

1. On the mingled exercises of mercy and judgment which characterise God's government of His Church.

2. On the regard which God has to the honour of His name, and the success of His cause in the earth.

3. On the ground of the mediatorial prerogatives of the Son of God.

4. On the promised power and grace of the Holy Spirit.

III. RESOLVING UPON IMMEDIATE REFORMATION. Let us give up the language of complaint and mutual recrimination, and substitute for it the voice of prayer.

(T. Vasey.)

Hope in God's mercy
The reason here given, why the Israelites could return safely and with sure confidence to God is, that they would acknowledge it as His office to heal after He has smitten, and to bring a remedy for the wounds which He has inflicted. The prophet means that God does not so punish men as to pour forth His wrath on them for their destruction; but that He intends, on the contrary, to promote their salvation, when He is severe in punishing their sins. The beginning of repentance is a sense of God's mercy; when men are persuaded that God is ready to give pardon, they then begin to gather courage to repent; otherwise perverseness will ever increase in them.

( John Calvin.)

People
Adam, Haggai, Hosea
Places
Assyria, Gilead, Shechem
Topics
Defiled, Ephraim, Ephraim's, E'phraim's, Evil, Harlotry, Horrible, Itself, Prostitution, Unclean, Whoredom
Outline
1. Exhortations to repent and hope in God.
4. A lamentation over those who had sinned after conviction.
5. Reproofs of obstinate sinners, and threats against them.

Dictionary of Bible Themes
Hosea 6:10

     6239   prostitution

Library
Our Miseries, Messengers of Mercy
Three things I must do this morning; first, I must deal a blow, at the old Tempter, who has got the first hand at you; secondly, I will come to reason comfortably with you; and then, thirdly, I must lovingly persuade you, saying--"Come, let us return unto the Lord." I. First then, I must DEAL A BLOW AT THE OLD TEMPTER, WHO HAS GOT BEFORE ME AND HAS BEGUN TO DECEIVE YOU. I cannot tell what is the precise temptation that Satan has been using with you, but I think it is very likely to be one of four. …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 7: 1861

Nature of Covenanting.
A covenant is a mutual voluntary compact between two parties on given terms or conditions. It may be made between superiors and inferiors, or between equals. The sentiment that a covenant can be made only between parties respectively independent of one another is inconsistent with the testimony of Scripture. Parties to covenants in a great variety of relative circumstances, are there introduced. There, covenant relations among men are represented as obtaining not merely between nation and nation, …
John Cunningham—The Ordinance of Covenanting

The Limitations of Earth's Great Week.
We are well aware that in broaching this point we shall probably evoke the criticism of honored brethren and be charged with "setting a date" for the Return of our Lord. Nevertheless, we feel constrained to set down our honest convictions, only asking our readers to examine in the light of Holy Writ what we now advance tentatively and not dogmatically. In ancient times it was commonly held by Jewish rabbis before our Lord's first advent, and by many of the most eminent of the church fathers afterwards, …
Arthur W. Pink—The Redeemer's Return

The Synagogue at Nazareth - Synagogue-Worship and Arrangements.
The stay in Cana, though we have no means of determining its length, was probably of only short duration. Perhaps the Sabbath of the same week already found Jesus in the Synagogue of Nazareth. We will not seek irreverently to lift the veil of sacred silence, which here, as elsewhere, the Gospel-narratives have laid over the Sanctuary of His inner Life. That silence is itself theopneustic, of Divine breathing and inspiration; it is more eloquent than any eloquence, a guarantee of the truthfulness …
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah

St Gregory the Great (Ad 540-604)
PART I Gregory was born at Rome, of a noble and wealthy family, in the year 540. In his youth he engaged in public business, and he rose to be proctor of Rome, which was one of the chief offices under the government. In this office he was much beloved and respected by the people. But about the age of thirty-five, a great change took place in his life. He resolved to forsake the pursuit of worldly honours, and spent all his wealth in founding seven monasteries. He gave up his family house at Rome …
J. C. Roberston—Sketches of Church History, from AD 33 to the Reformation

Letter xv (Circa A. D. 1129) to Alvisus, Abbot of Anchin
To Alvisus, Abbot of Anchin He praises the fatherly gentleness of Alvisus towards Godwin. He excuses himself, and asks pardon for having admitted him. To Alvisus, Abbot of Anchin. [18] 1. May God render to you the same mercy which you have shown towards your holy son Godwin. I know that at the news of his death you showed yourself unmindful of old complaints, and remembering only your friendship for him, behaved with kindness, not resentment, and putting aside the character of judge, showed yourself …
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux—Some Letters of Saint Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux

Prayer.
CHARACTERISTICS OF PRAYER. WHAT is prayer? A sincere, sensible, affectionate pouring out of the soul to God, through Christ, in the strength and assistance of the Spirit, for such things as God hath promised. The best prayers have often more groans than words. Alas, how few there be in the world whose heart and mouth in prayer shall go together. Dost thou, when thou askest for the Spirit, or faith, or love to God, to holiness, to saints, to the word, and the like, ask for them with love to them, …
John Bunyan—The Riches of Bunyan

The Coming Revival
"Wilt Thou not revive us again: that Thy people may rejoice in Thee?"--PS. lxxxv. 6. "O Lord, revive Thy work in the midst of the years."--HAB. iii. 2. "Though I walk in the midst of trouble, Thou wilt revive me: Thy right hand shall save me."--PS. cxxxviii. 7. "I dwell with him that is of a humble and contrite heart, to revive the heart of the contrite ones."--ISA. lvii. 15. "Come, and let us return to the Lord: for He hath torn, and He will heal us. He will revive us."--HOS. vi. 1, 2. The Coming …
Andrew Murray—The Ministry of Intercession

The Strait Gate. Warned against Herod.
(Peræa.) ^C Luke XIII. 22-35. ^c 22 And he went on his way through cities and villages, teaching, and journeying on unto Jerusalem. [This verse probably refers back to verse 10, and indicates that Jesus resumed his journey after the brief rest on the Sabbath day when he healed the woman with the curvature of the spine.] 23 And one said unto him, Lord, are they few that are saved? [It is likely that this question was asked by a Jew, and that the two parables illustrating the smallness of the …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

The Work of Jesus Christ as an Advocate,
CLEARLY EXPLAINED, AND LARGELY IMPROVED, FOR THE BENEFIT OF ALL BELIEVERS. 1 John 2:1--"And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." By JOHN BUNYAN, Author of "The Pilgrim's Progress." London: Printed for Dorman Newman, at the King's Arms, in the Poultry, 1689. ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR. This is one of the most interesting of Bunyan's treatises, to edit which required the Bible at my right hand, and a law dictionary on my left. It was very frequently republished; …
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3

Jesus Defends Disciples who Pluck Grain on the Sabbath.
(Probably While on the Way from Jerusalem to Galilee.) ^A Matt. XII. 1-8; ^B Mark II. 23-28; ^C Luke VI. 1-5. ^b 23 And ^c 1 Now it came to pass ^a 1 At that season ^b that he ^a Jesus went { ^b was going} on the { ^c a} ^b sabbath day through the grainfields; ^a and his disciples were hungry and began ^b as they went, to pluck the ears. ^a and to eat, ^c and his disciples plucked the ears, and did eat, rubbing them in their hands. [This lesson fits in chronological order with the last, if the Bethesda …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

Backsliding.
"I will heal their backsliding; I will love them freely: for Mine anger is turned away."--Hosea xiv. 4. There are two kinds of backsliders. Some have never been converted: they have gone through the form of joining a Christian community and claim to be backsliders; but they never have, if I may use the expression, "slid forward." They may talk of backsliding; but they have never really been born again. They need to be treated differently from real back-sliders--those who have been born of the incorruptible …
Dwight L. Moody—The Way to God and How to Find It

Divine Calls.
"And the Lord came, and stood, and called as at other times, Samuel; Samuel. Then Samuel answered, Speak; for Thy servant heareth."--1 Samuel iii. 10. In the narrative of which these words form part, we have a remarkable instance of a Divine call, and the manner in which it is our duty to meet it. Samuel was from a child brought to the house of the Lord; and in due time he was called to a sacred office, and made a prophet. He was called, and he forthwith answered the call. God said, "Samuel, …
John Henry Newman—Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. VIII

Of the Nature of Regeneration, and Particularly of the Change it Produces in Men's Apprehensions.
2 COR. v. 17. 2 COR. v. 17. If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away, behold all things are become new. THE knowledge of our true state in religion, is at once a matter of so great importance, and so great difficulty that, in order to obtain it, it is necessary we should have line upon line and precept upon precept. The plain discourse, which you before heard, was intended to lead you into it; and I question not but I then said enough to convince many, that they were …
Philip Doddridge—Practical Discourses on Regeneration

Job's Faith and Expectation
I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand in the latter day upon the earth. And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God. C hristianity, that is, the religion of which MESSIAH is the author and object, the foundation, life, and glory, though not altogether as old as creation, is nearly so. It is coeval [contemporary] with the first promise and intimation of mercy given to fallen man. When Adam, by transgression, had violated the order and law of …
John Newton—Messiah Vol. 2

Hosea
The book of Hosea divides naturally into two parts: i.-iii. and iv.-xiv., the former relatively clear and connected, the latter unusually disjointed and obscure. The difference is so unmistakable that i.-iii. have usually been assigned to the period before the death of Jeroboam II, and iv.-xiv. to the anarchic period which succeeded. Certainly Hosea's prophetic career began before the end of Jeroboam's reign, as he predicts the fall of the reigning dynasty, i. 4, which practically ended with Jeroboam's …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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