Hosea 8:1-4 Set the trumpet to your mouth. He shall come as an eagle against the house of the LORD, because they have transgressed my covenant… The trumpet sounds the approach of judgment. It is judgment which begins at the house of God (1 Peter 4:17). The "eagle" is the Assyrian; in later times the Roman (cf. Deuteronomy 28:49). The cause of the judgment is that constantly insisted on: "They have transgressed my covenant, and trespassed against my Law" (ver. 1). I. KNOWLEDGE OF GOD THROUGH JUDGMENT. (Ver. 2.) In the day of doom Israel would cry to God, "My God, we know thee, we Israel" So at the last judgment: 1. Those who have hitherto denied God will be forced to acknowledge him. Their startled cry, when it is too late, will be, "My God, we know thee." They will know him to their cost. They will no longer be able to disguise to themselves the fact of his existence or the reality of his power. No more pretence of ignorance, no more caviling, no more blasphemous defiance. 2. Those who have hitherto forgotten God will be force to remember him. They will experience a rude awakening from the careless security n which they have been living. They will find God's words to be true, his warnings real, the "wrath to come" a dreadful certainty. It will be impossible longer to put off reflection, or to shut out thoughts of him with whom they have to do. 3. Those who have hitherto slighted God's friendship will be eager to make friends with him. They will address him as their God ("My God"), will recall past knowledge of him, will urge any pleas which they think will gain them mercy. They are as anxious now to make themselves out God's friends as formerly they were to have nothing to do with him. In times of affliction or peril, as well as on the approach of death or judgment, sinners show themselves very willing to call on God. "Many will say unto me in that day, Lord, Lord," etc. (Matthew 7:22). Such pleas, however, will not avail. The repentance is too late, and it is not sincere. Israel would gain nothing by being of the seed of Jacob (cf. Matthew 3:9). II. AN INVARIABLE SEQUENCE. (Ver. 3.) Israel, having cast off good, would be pursued by the enemy. The sequence is short, simple, certain. It is as sure as any law of nature. 1. Antecedent. "Israel hath cast off good." In every sense Israel had done this. The nation had (1) cast out the knowledge of good (Hosea 4:6); (2) cast off the practice of good (Hosea 4:1, 7; Hosea 5:4; Hosea 6:7; Hosea 7:1, 2); (3) despised the hope of good, the blessing and salvation promised on condition of obedience. 2. Consequent. "The enemy shall [or, 'let the enemy'] pursue him." The enemy pursues those who cast off good. (1) Conscience pursues. The sinner cannot escape from its rebukes, scourgings, and pursuing memories. (2) The laws of nature pursue. Nature is so constituted that its laws are on the side of the virtuous, and against those that do evil. Sin is followed by inevitable natural penalties. (3) Divine justice pursues. There is, even in this life, a providential retribution which the sinner seldom escapes (cf. Deuteronomy 28.). In any case there is a final judgment, when every one shall receive for the things done in the body, according to that he hath done, whether good or bad (2 Corinthians 5:10). III. REPRESENTATIVE TRANSGRESSION. (Ver. 4.) Israel's kings were not of God. They had been set up without consulting God, and had ruled in disregard of God's will. The worship of the calves was in direct opposition to Divine commandment. It had its ground in political expediency. This lays bare to us the essence of ungodliness. Ungodliness: 1. Waives all regard to God's will in the shaping of life. It plans existence irrespectively of God. Whatever the ungodly man "sets up," it is done "without God." He seeks an independent being. 2. Makes gods for itself out of God's gifts. "Of their silver and gold have they made them idols." The world becomes its god. 3. The end - "cut off?" - J.O. Parallel Verses KJV: Set the trumpet to thy mouth. He shall come as an eagle against the house of the LORD, because they have transgressed my covenant, and trespassed against my law. |
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