The political anarchy and social degradation of the kingdom of Israel during the time of Hosea arose from causes too deep to be reached by the panaceas of politicians, or by the nostrums of political economists. Willful and persistent disobedience to Divine Law was the secret source of these disorders, which called for a radical change in the hearts of the people. This, however, it seemed hopeless to expect from the nation at large. It was given over to its impenitence and hardness of heart. Hence, while there are words of promise for individual penitents, which break upon our ears like songs in the storm, there are none for the nation. Over it was creeping the darkness of a night which would have no dawn, the dreariness of a winter which would never be followed by a spring. The intensity of feeling with which a patriot like Hosea would utter such denunciations accounts in some degree for his obscurity, his sentences sounding sometimes as though broken by sobs. The degraded condition of those he addressed, demanding as it did a style of teaching which would compel attention, necessitated the bold sketches and glaring colors which abound in his prophecy. From the passage before us we learn the following lessons: -

I. THAT A LITERAL OBEDIENCE TO A DIVINE COMMAND MAY ULTIMATELY BRING PUNISHMENT INSTEAD OF REWARD. "I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu." The reference is to one of the greatest tragedies in history, recorded in 2 Kings 9. and 10. Jehu destroyed the guilty house of Ahab, and the powerful hierarchy of Baal and Astarte, in obedience to God's command. Why, then, was this blood to be avenged upon his house? Because, as Calvin puts it, "the massacre was a crime so far as Jehu was concerned, but with God it was a righteous vengeance." In other words, a n act which is commanded by God may be so done as to become a crime to the man who does it. Let us take Jehu as an example of this

1. Jehu sinned in his obedience because he was seeking his own ends, and not God's. He slew the princes of Ahab's house because they might rebel against himself; and destroyed the priesthood of Baal and Astarte because, as they owed their position to Jezebel, they would foment dissension, and use their influence against his usurpation. God does not seek such obedience as this. He teaches us to pray, "Thy will be done on earth, as it is done in heaven," though the answer to the prayer may destroy our own cherished plans. The highest exemplification of this spirit we see in our Lord, who, being in an agony in Gethsemane, prayed, "Father, not my will, but thine, be done." In later times the Pharisees sinned just as Jehu had done; and Christ, who read their hearts, declared that, although they obeyed the Law, they were condemned by God in their obedience, because they sought not his honor, but their own. Such sin is possible to you. If you do what is right in business merely because "honesty is the best policy," and trade depends on a good reputation; if you give to the poor for the sake of the popularity you can win; if you abstain from a sinful indulgence because you can no longer afford it, or fear you may lose some prestige; - you have in all these things "your reward;" you will gain what you seek, but nothing more. Yours is the sin of Jehu, who won the throne because he obeyed; but at last had this curse because he wrongly obeyed. Seeing, then, that you have to do with him who decides unerringly about the motive of every act, put up the constant prayer, "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me."

2. The sin of Jehu also appeared in this, that he loved and practiced the very sins he had been called upon to punish in others. (2 Kings 10:31.) He refused to worship Baal and Astarte, not because they were idols, but because their worship was associated with the house of Ahab. But he did worship the calves (and so was equally idolatrous), because this cultus served his political ends, and seemed essential to the independent existence of the kingdom of Israel (see 1 Kings 12:25-33). He hated the sinners, but he loved their sins; the very reverse of what was true of our King, who hated sin, but loved us and died for us "while we were yet sinners." Now, if we punish a person for wrongdoing, and yet do the wrong ourselves, we are not only inconsistent, but we prove that we are sinning against the light, and so aggravate our offence. Suppose, for example, that a parent rebukes his child for swearing, while he himself is guilty of that sin, though right in the actual reproof, he is wrong, as Jehu was, in its insincerity. Paul contemplates this in Romans 2:3, where he asks, "Thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them which do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God?" Such were the two elements of sin in Jehu's outward obedience, which called for the threat, "I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu."

II. THAT DEPARTING FROM GOD IS THE BEGINNING OF ALL SIN. Calf-worship (a modification of Egyptian idolatry) was less hideous and degrading in its ritual than that which desecrated the groves of Astarte or the high places of Baal. But it paved the way for these grosser idolatries. Indeed, even in itself it was not so innocent as some declare it to have been; for the calf did not represent Jehovah, but "nature," so this was the worship of the creature, as opposed to that of the Creator. In less gross forms this idolatry appears in modern times. Many talk of "nature" till they forget God in his works, and are in spirit followers of shrewd, irreligious Jeroboam, who set up the calves at Dan and Bethel, and so made Israel to sin. In that false worship were found the germs of other sins. Spiritual adultery was followed by carnal adultery. Faithlessness towards God led to unfaithfulness towards man. So men became entangled, as they ever do, in the meshes of sin, till they were "drowned in destruction and perdition." It is because we are fearful of the consequences of departure from God that we are anxious about many who are dead to us. They have contracted no notorious vices and are unstained in reputation; but they have no safeguard against the worst sins and woes, so long as it is true that "God is not in all their thoughts." They are as much exposed to danger as the sheep on the fields of Bethlehem were before David, their shepherd, rich in his heroism and strength, slew both the lion and the bear. An estranged life is an endangered life.

III. THAT A TIME OF OUTWARD PROSPERITY MAY BE A TIME OF APPROACHING DESTRUCTION. "I will cause to cease the kingdom of the house of Israel." Never had the realm seemed more prosperous than when Hosed uttered this prophecy. It was daring the reign of Jeroboam II. a brave and able man, who had regained all that Hazael had conquered, had subdued Moab and recovered Damascus. The kingdom seemed strong, but it was on the eve of disruption. So has it often been. When the King of Babylon was feasting with his nobles, Cyrus was marching up the bed of the river, transforming the city's means of defense into its means of destruction. When the people of the Roman empire were giving way to luxury, as men who could afford to relax the old toil and strain, the Goths were at their gates. Let any nation fail in moral strength amidst material prosperity, and forget that it is "righteousness which exalteth a nation;" let it in spirit say to itself, "Thou hast much goods laid up for many years," then there sounds from heaven the warning words, "Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee!" Nor ought a Christian Church to consider that its wealth and numbers constitute a gauge for its stability and spiritual strength, for not infrequently its truest prosperity has been seen in the days of persecution for righteousness' sake. To ourselves also let us fearlessly apply the same principle. Our peril may be greatest in our hours of success and prosperity. Woo is nearest when all men speak well of us; for it is when we have eaten and are full that we must beware lest we forget the Lord our God.

IV. THAT A SCENE OF MEMORABLE VICTORIES MAY BECOME THE SCENE OF FINAL DEFEAT. "I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel." The "bow" is always in Scripture an emblem of strength, and here denotes the military and political power of Israel, which would be broken in the valley of Jezreel. No place was more distinguished than this for the execution of Divine judgments against the foes of his people. There the hosts of Sisera were scattered by Barak, and there the Midianites slept securely in their camp till, in the dead of night, Gideon with his three hundred swept down the hillside like an avalanche and overwhelmed them. This place, made memorable by former victories, was to become the scene of final defeat to God's people who had become God's foes. This dreadful change was strikingly set forth by the two contrasted names, "Israel" and "Vidsreel," names which implied that it was brought about by change in character; for the people were no longer "Israel," having power with God, but had become "Yidsreel," scattered by God, from him and from each other. Israel's bow should be broken in the valley of Jezreel. What is the bow of our strength? If it be not in Jehovah it will be broken; for the day of retribution must come upon all that sets itself against God, or dares to take his place. We are hastening on to a final conflict which will test us to the utmost. In the valley of the shadow of death our fathers have exclaimed, "Now thanks be unto God which giveth us the victory;" but if we forsake God as Israel did, that place of holy memories will be to us, not the place of conquest and song, but of defeat and shame, for there that in which we have foolishly trusted will be broken, like the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel. - A.R.

Jezreel means, the child of guilt; therefore not Israel, but Jezreel (or more exactly, Izreel). The name is referred to for its historical associations. It points both backwards and forwards — backward to the massacre of Ahab's family by Jehu (2 Kings 9:10), and forward to the punishment for that wild and cruel act. Hosea (in whom natural peculiarities have been purified and not extinguished by the spirit of prophecy) regards the conduct of Jehu in a different light from the writer of 2 Kings 10:30. The latter praises Jehu for having "done unto the house of Ahab according to all that was in My mind"; he speaks on the assumption that Jehu had the interests of Jehovah's worship at heart, and that he destroyed the house of Ahab as the only effectual means of advancing them. The former blames Jehu apparently on the high moral ground that Jehovah desires mercy (love) and not sacrifice (Hosea 6:6). He speaks as the Israelites of his time doubtless felt. They no more recognised Jehu as a champion of Jehovah than did the priests of Baal whom he basely entrapped. But Hosea doubtless felt in addition that the idolatry to which the house of Jehu was addicted rendered a permanent religious reform hopeless. Image-worship could not be suppressed by such half-hearted worshippers of Jehovah, and hence, Jehovah's moral government of His people must have made it certain to Hosea that even on this ground alone the dynasty of Jehu could not escape an overthrow.

(T. K. Cheyne, D. D.)