Hosea 6:4 O Ephraim, what shall I do to you? O Judah, what shall I do to you? for your goodness is as a morning cloud… The Jewish doctors found in these words a prophecy of Christ. We Christians cannot do less. It is Christ whom our faith must grasp under these two figures - the day-dawn and the rain. There is a twofold coming of the Son of God - the first in his own Person to establish and confirm the gospel; the second in his Holy Spirit to apply it to the heart. The one of these may be very fitly compared to the morning, the other to the rain. I. THERE ARE POINTS IN WHICH THE DAY-DAWN AND THE RAIN RESEMBLE EACH OTHER. 1. They have the same manifest origin. They come from heaven. They are not of man's making and ordering, but of God's. It is not less so with the gospel and Spirit of Christ. Man neither invented nor discovered them. They carry their evidence with them, like Heaven's sun and Heaven's rain. 2. They have the same mode of operation on the part of God. The mode of operation is soft and silent. What so gentle as the day-dawn? What more soft than the spring's falling rain? And like to these in their operations are the gospel and the Spirit of Christ. When the Savior came into the world it was silently and alone. His kingdom came not with observation. The Spirit's great work is not in the earthquake, or the mighty rushing wind, but in the still small voice. 3. They have the same mode of approach to us - in perfect fullness and freeness. They are, like God's great gifts, without money and without price, and they come with an overflowing plenty. In this they are fit and blessed emblems of the way in which Christ approaches us, both with his gospel and his Spirit. 4. They have the same object and end. It is the transformation of death into life, and the raising of that which lives into higher and fairer form. The gospel and Spirit of Christ have the same aim - life and revival. Christ is no less earnest for our eternal life in the one than in the other. II. THERE ARE POINTS OF DISTINCTION BETWEEN THE DAY-DAWN AND THE RAIN. 1. Christ's approach to men has a general and yet a special aspect. The sun comes every morning with a broad, unbroken look, shining for all and singling out none. But the rain, as it descends, breaks into drops, and hangs with its globules on every blade. Them is a wonderful individualizing power in the rain. There is a similar twofold aspect in the coming of Christ. The gospel enters the world with the broad universal look of daylight, it singles out none, that it may exclude none. But Christ comes after another manner in the Spirit. Here no man can tell how God is dealing with another. He approaches the door of the single heart and speaks to itself. 2. Christ's coming is constant, yet variable. He visits men in his gospel, steady and unchanging as the sun. But with the Holy Spirit it is otherwise. For the rain man knows no fixed rule. It may come soon or late, in scanty showers or plentiful floods. The gift of God's Spirit is no doubt regulated also by laws, but these laws are hidden from us in their final ground. The emblems show us in God's working the two great features of law and freedom. 3. Christ's coming may be with gladness, and yet also with trouble. What more joyful than the returning sun? But God comes also in the cloud, and there is a shade over the face of nature - sometimes in the thunder-cloud, dark and threatening. There is gladness in the gospel, there is trouble in the conviction by the Spirit. But Christ comes in both. 4. Christ's coming in his gospel and his coming in the Spirit tend to a final and perfect union. They are indispensable to each other. The gospel without the Spirit would be the sun shining on a rainless waste. The Spirit without the gospel would be the rain falling in a starless night. Christians need both. Some have a very distinct perception of the gospel in its freeness and fullness, but they lack the life of the Spirit They need the rain Some experience the workings of the Spirit in conviction, etc., but they have only a small portion of the sunlight and the joy. Our souls can only live and grow when the sun and the showers intermingle. (Adapted from Dr. John Ker.) - J.O. Parallel Verses KJV: O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? O Judah, what shall I do unto thee? for your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away. |
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