Hosea 10:12-15 Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the LORD… Israel's duty is here contrasted with their practice. I. THE KIND OF HUSBANDRY ISRAEL OUGHT TO HAVE FOLLOWED. (Ver. 12.) 1. Preparation of the soil. Israel is first bid to sow; then going a step further back, the people are commanded, "Break up your fallow ground." If fruits of righteousness are to be produced, it needs, not simply a weeding and recultivation of the old soil - the natural, unrenewed heart - but the preparation of a soil entirely new. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit" (John 3:6). Ezekiel, accordingly, promises that God will take away the hard and stony heart from Israel, and will give them a heart of flesh (Ezekiel 36:26). The first need of our souls is renewal. Yet we have the duty laid on us of seeking this renewal, and of co-operating (by prayer, use of means of grace, faith, repentance) in bringing it about. "Make you a new heart, and a new spirit" (Ezekiel 18:31). 2. Sowing in the soil. The sowing is to be "in righteousness," i.e. in the practice of truth, kindness, justice, mercy, godliness, and everything else which the Law of God requires. Each must sow for himself. The sowing cannot be done by proxy. Sowing in righteousness is "for ourselves" in the sense also that our own highest well-being is involved in it (Psalm 19:11). Righteousness in the long run profits the doer himself more than it profits any other. It is his "life" (Deuteronomy 32:47). 3. Waiting on God. "For it is time to seek the Lord, till he come and rain righteousness upon you." As in the outer world rain is indispensable to growth, so is the blessing of God, given in rains of his Spirit, essential to growth in grace. In raining the Spirit upon us, God rains righteousness. Cause is put for effect. It is the Spirit's influences which cause righteousness to spring up. This waiting on God must accompany the whole process. It implies an earnest direction of the heart, supplication, and patient looking for the blessing. It is always "time" for the sinner to seek the Lord. He cannot do it too soon. 4. The gracious reaping. "Reap in mercy." Not according to desert, but according to God's infinite grace and love. The reaping is (1) a reaping of righteousness (Romans 6:19, 22); (2) of other spiritual and temporal blessings (Matthew 6:33; Ephesians 1:3); (3) of eternal life (Romans 6:12). II. THE KIND OF HUSBANDRY ISRAEL DID FOLLOW. (Ver. 13.) 1. Instead of "sowing in righteousness," Israel ploughed wickedness. They took pains to do evil, bestowed labor upon it, prepared the soil in which it might grow, and seemed to delight in multiplying transgressions. If God's people were as diligent in cultivating goodness as sinners are in cultivating sin, the Church would soon be in a healthier condition. 2. Instead of "reaping in mercy," they reaped iniquity. Sin brought forth sin. They served 'iniquity unto iniquity'" (Romans 6:19). As weeds multiply quicker than good gram, so sin, in the same space of time, yields a far greater harvest (of its own kind) than righteousness. 3. Instead of spiritual and temporal blessings, Israel reaped disappointment and ruin. (1) They reaped lies (disappointment). "Ye have eaten the fruit of lies." Their hopes, built chiefly on the multitude of their fighting men (ver. 15), deceived them. They proved utterly vain. They had sown lies in "speaking words" and "swearing falsely in making a covenant" (ver. 4); they now reaped the fruit of this, in seeing their hosts utterly routed, their fortresses captured, and their women and children dashed to pieces (ver. 14) - judgment springing up in the furrows they had themselves made (ver. 4). (2) They reaped ruin. When war arose, the sword of the Assyrian swept all before it. Israel could read in recent atrocities of Shalman the doom which awaited themselves (ver. 14). King and kingdom would be cut off (ver. 15) - "in a morning," i.e. early. This was the result of their sowing. This was what Bethel, with its "evil of evil," had done for them. Oh that the sinner would take warning! - J.O. Parallel Verses KJV: Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the LORD, till he come and rain righteousness upon you. |
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