Israel is swallowed up! Now they are among the nations like a worthless vessel. Sermons
I. MINGLING WITH THE WORLD LEADS TO ABSORPTION BY THE WORLD. (Ver. 8.) It was the complaint against Ephraim that he had mixed himself among the people (Hosea 7:8). He was not content to remain separate, as God had ordained. He must have his freedom (cf. Luke 15:11-13). We now see the end of this: "Israel is swallowed up." He was: 1. Absorbed by the world. The Gentiles got wholly the possession of him. It is so spiritually with those who try to serve both God and mammon. The attempt to serve two masters proves vain. The world gains ground in the heart; God loses ground. By-and-by the world has the whole. The backslider is "swallowed up" (cf. 1 Timothy 6:9, 10; 2 Timothy 4:10). 2. An object of contempt to the world. "Among the Gentiles as a vessel wherein there is no pleasure." The world in its heart secretly despises those whom it has got under its influence, having turned them away from God. It holds them in contempt. Two kinds of men the world has respect for - its own kind, and the thoroughly godly. It has no respect at all for the third something, that tries to be both and yet is neither - the trimmer, the compromiser, the backslider. Nor, once it has them in its power, is it slow to show its contempt for them. II. THE DESIRE TO BE INDEPENDENT OF GOD LEADS TO DEPENDENCE ON THE WORLD. (Ver. 9.) Israel went up to Assyria - "a wild ass alone by itself." We understand the figure to allude to Israel's intractable spirit and desire of independence. The nation must, at all costs, be rid of God's yoke, and go out "alone by itself." The use it makes of its independence, however, is to go to Assyria. The motive is not, of course, to have Assyria's yoke imposed on it instead of God's; but this is the result. Seeking independence of God, it sinks into dependence on Assyria. Herein is imaged the end of all attempts at a false independence. 1. True freedom for man - true independence - dies in loyal acceptance of the rule of God. This gives inward emancipation and superiority to the seductions of the world. 2. Renouncing this, the soul sinks into a dependence on finite things, alien to its nature. It fails into bondage. It exchanges God's service for a worse. It is ruled by the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life (l John 2:10). The prodigal, leaving his father's house for freedom, ended by joining himself to a citizen in the "far country," who sent him into his fields to feed swine (Luke 15:15, 16). III. TRAFFICKING WITH THE WORLD LEADS TO OPPRESSION BY THE WORLD. (Ver. 10.) Israel trafficked with the world for its favor - "hired among the nations;" the result being that it was given up by God to be oppressed by the world - "the burden of the king of princes." The stages are (1) sinful desire towards the world - "hired lovers" (ver. 9); (2) propitiation of the world, by gifts, alliances, etc.; (3) absorption by the world and subjection to the world, as already described; (4) oppression by the world. This power of Assyria over Israel was: 1. Divinely given. "Now will I gather them." It was God, and no one else, who gave this people into the hands of the foreigners. 2. Distressing. Israel would suffer much in exile. Her burden would be heavy; her numbers would be diminished. The world is a terrible tyrant over those whom it gets in its power. 3. Equitable. We trace here the same proportionateness between sin and punishment as falls so frequently to be noticed. They voluntarily "hired" among the nations; now they are oppressed by Gentile tribute. - J.O.
For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind. Sketches of Sermons. Misery is attached to sin as its inevitable consequence; but the connection does not always appear to a superficial observer. Transgression sometimes appears to be productive of happiness, and obedience to be a source of much affliction and trouble. But the wicked are not really happy now, and they have no reasonable expectation of happiness in the eternal world.I. WHO MAY BE SAID TO SOW THE WIND? To "sow the wind" is a proverbial expression for labouring in vain. It may be applied to all who seek happiness in the way of sin. 1. To sensualists, who yield themselves up to the gratifications of sense. See confession of Solomon (Ecclesiastes 2:1, 10, 11). 2. To worldlings. The lovers of this present world hope to obtain, not a momentary gratification, but solid and lasting benefits. But riches are proverbially uncertain. Our cares are generally multiplied by means of them. 3. To formalists. The performance of religious duties seems more calculated to make us happy. No one can be happy who disregards them. But a mere round of services can never satisfy the conscience. Some delude themselves with an idea that it will secure the Divine favour. Under that delusion they may be filled with self-complacency. A sight of sin will speedily dissipate these self-righteous hopes. 4. To false professors. There are many who wish to be thought religious when they are destitute of spiritual life. They may be jealous about doctrines and their own particular form of Church government, but they are not solicitous to live nigh to God in holy duties. II. WHAT THEY MAY EXPECT TO REAP. A "whirlwind" is a figure to represent extraordinary calamities. Their calamities will be — 1. Sudden. They receive warnings, but are taken by surprise at last. 2. Irresistible. Illustrate by a whirlwind. 3. Tremendous. See desolation wrought by a whirlwind. Infers (1) (2) (Sketches of Sermons.) 1. Many do nothing all their lifetime but sow the wind; they labour and toil, but what comes of it? It is no good account to give to God of our time, to say that we have taken a great deal of pains; we may take pains and yet "sow the wind." Who are those that sow the wind?(1) Some students: men that spend their thoughts and strength about things in no way profitable to themselves or others, such sow the wind: with a great deal of earnestness they do just nothing.(2) Idolaters. All those who take pains and are at great cost in superstitious worship, all their intentions that they have to honour God, come to nothing, it is but a sowing the wind.(3) Formalists. Such as content themselves in the outward part of God's worship, having no power nor life of godliness in the services they perform.(4) The vainglorious. They who do all that they do out of vainglory, who, to set up themselves among others, spend a long time in prayer, and an ostentatiously scrupulous observance of all rites and ceremonies, a principle of vainglory actuating them throughout. Men of public gifts, who do abundance of good in the Church of God and in the commonwealth, but are moved thereto by a principle of self and vainglory, these lose all, they sow but to the wind.(5) Such as serve themselves of sin; such as seek to shift for themselves by sinful means when they are in any straits, and forsake lawful courses to help themselves out of trouble. "They reap the whirlwind." The Hebrew word has a syllable more than usual added to it to increase its signification. It is not only a whirlwind, but a most terrible whirlwind. There is more in the harvest than in the seed. Sow a little sinful pleasure, and a great deal of misery is the fruit. (Jeremiah Burroughs.) Notice the way in which the acts of daily life influence destiny.I. WE ARE CONTINUALLY FORMING HABITS. II. THE TENDENCY OF HABITS ONCE FORMED IS TO INCREASE IN STRENGTH. "Wind — whirlwind." III. HABITS INCREASE IN THE DIRECTION OF ORIGINAL TENDENCY. Same in kind, though vastly different in intensity and force. IV. THE TENDENCY OF HABITS IS TO INCREASE IN STRENGTH TILL THEY PASS BEYOND CONTROL. The whirlwind desolates the land and strews the sea with wrecks. Habit is something like appetite: we are led by it, just as a hungry man makes his way towards home. It cannot be explained how it is that actions become easier by being repeated, but that it is so everybody must admit. If we do anything a certain number of times, the doing has an effect upon us, and that effect we call "habit." We should therefore be very careful what we accustom ourselves to do, lest we should acquire the appetite or habit of doing things that are hurtful and wrong. Habit is the result of repeated acts, and it is wonderful how soon a little child acquires a habit. The doing of a thing once or twice is sufficient to lead the child to do it again — "All habits gather, by unseen degrees, As brooks make rivers, rivers run to seas." (A. Hampden Lee.) People Hosea, ZechariahPlaces Assyria, Egypt, SamariaTopics Already, Cup, Delight, Delighteth, Delights, Destruction, Gentiles, Nations, None, Pleasure, Swallowed, Useless, Value, Vessel, Wherein, WorthlessOutline 1. Destruction is threatened both to Israel and Judah for their impiety and idolatry.Dictionary of Bible Themes Hosea 8:1-10Library The BibleOh! how ten-thousand-fold merciful is God, that, looking down upon the race of man, he does not smite it our of existence. We see from our text that God looks upon man; for he says of Ephraim, "I have written to him the great things of my law, but they were counted as a strange thing." But see how, when he observes the sin of man, he does not dash him away and spurn him with his foot; he does not shake him by the neck over the gulf of hell, until his brain doth reel and then drop him forever; but … Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 1: 1855 And First, Can it be Said that Mammmon is Less Served by Christians... That the Unskilful Venture not to Approach an Office of Authority. That Whereas the City of Jerusalem had Been Five Times Taken Formerly, this was the Second Time of Its Desolation. A Brief Account of Its History. "For they that are after the Flesh do Mind the Things of the Flesh,", The Instrumentality of the Wicked Employed by God, While He Continues Free from Every Taint. A Few Sighs from Hell; Hosea Links Hosea 8:8 NIVHosea 8:8 NLT Hosea 8:8 ESV Hosea 8:8 NASB Hosea 8:8 KJV Hosea 8:8 Bible Apps Hosea 8:8 Parallel Hosea 8:8 Biblia Paralela Hosea 8:8 Chinese Bible Hosea 8:8 French Bible Hosea 8:8 German Bible Hosea 8:8 Commentaries Bible Hub |
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