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Hosea Chapter
Twelve
Hosea 12
Chapter Contents
Judah and Israel reminded of the Divine favours. (1-6)
The provocations of Israel. (7-14)
Commentary on Hosea 12:1-6
Ephraim feeds himself with vain hopes of help from man,
when he is at enmity with God. The Jews vainly thought to secure the Egyptians
by a present of the produce of their country. Judah is contended with also. God
sees the sin of his own people, and will reckon with them for it. They are put
in mind of what Jacob did, and what God did for him. When his faith upon the
Divine promise prevailed above his fears, then by his strength he had power
with God. He is Jehovah, the same that was, and is, and is to come. What was a
revelation of God to one, is his memorial to many, to all generations. Then let
those who have gone from God, be turned to him. Turn thou to the Lord, by
repentance and faith, as thy God. Let those that are converted to him, walk
with him in all holy conversation and godliness. Let us wrestle with Him for
promised blessings, determined not to give over till we prevail; and let us
seek Him in his ordinances.
Commentary on Hosea 12:7-14
Ephraim became a merchant: the word also signifies a
Canaanite. They carried on trade upon Canaanitish principles, covetously and
with fraud and deceit. Thus they became rich, and falsely supposed that
Providence favoured them. But shameful sins shall have shameful punishments.
Let them remember, not only what a mighty prince Jacob was with God, but what a
servant he was to Laban. The benefits we have had from the word of God, make
our sin and folly the worse, if we put any slight upon that word. We had better
follow the hardest labour in poverty, than grow rich by sin. We may form a
judgment of our own conduct, by comparing it with that of ancient believers in
the like circumstances. Whoever despises the message of God, will perish. May
we all hear his word with humble, obedient faith.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Hosea》
Hosea 12
Verse 1
[1]
Ephraim feedeth on wind, and followeth after the east wind: he daily increaseth
lies and desolation; and they do make a covenant with the Assyrians, and oil is
carried into Egypt.
Feedeth on wind — It
is a proverbial speech; denoting his supporting himself with hopes, as unfit to
sustain him as the wind is to feed us.
Increaseth lies — By
making new leagues, and fortifying himself with them, against the menaces of
God by his prophets.
Desolation —
Which will only hasten and increase his desolation.
Oil —
Not common oil for trade, but rich and precious oils, to procure friendship
there too.
Verse 2
[2] The LORD hath also a controversy with Judah, and will punish Jacob
according to his ways; according to his doings will he recompense him.
Jacob —
Ephraim and Judah are of Jacob, both have corrupted themselves, and therefore I
will proceed against both.
Verse 3
[3] He
took his brother by the heel in the womb, and by his strength he had power with
God:
He — Jacob.
Took his brother —
The design of mentioning this is to mind them of that goodness which God shewed
them in their father Jacob.
His strength —
This strength was not of nature, but of grace. Strength received of God was
well employed betimes; in it he wrestled for and obtained the blessing.
Verse 4
[4] Yea,
he had power over the angel, and prevailed: he wept, and made supplication unto
him: he found him in Bethel, and there he spake with us;
The angel —
Called verse 3, God; and verse 5, Jehovah, Lord of hosts. He was no created
angel, but the Messiah; eternal God by nature and essence, angel by office, and
voluntary undertaking.
He wept — He
prayed with tears from a sense of his own unworthiness, and with earnestness
for the mercy he desired.
He — God.
Him —
Jacob full of weariness, fears, and solicitude on his journey to Laban.
He — God.
With us —
Being then in Jacob's loins.
Verse 5
[5] Even the LORD God of hosts; the LORD is his memorial.
The Lord God of hosts — He that appeared and spake, who promised the blessing and commanded the
reformation at Beth-el was Jehovah, the eternal and unchangeable God; who can
perform his promise, and execute his threat, who is a most terrible enemy, and
most desirable friend.
The Lord —
Jehovah, repeated for confirmation.
His memorial — By
this he will be known.
Verse 6
[6]
Therefore turn thou to thy God: keep mercy and judgment, and wait on thy God
continually.
Turn —
Repent, leave idols and all sins. He worshipped God alone, do you so; he cast
idols out of his family, do you so too; be Jacob's children herein.
Mercy —
Shew kindness to all who need it.
Judgment —
Wrong none; but with justice in dealings, in judicatures; and public offices,
render to every one their due.
Wait on thy God — In
public worship and private duties serve and trust God alone: let not idols have
either sacrifice, prayer, praise, or trust from you; and let your hope and
worship, be for ever continued.
Verse 7
[7] He
is a merchant, the balances of deceit are in his hand: he loveth to oppress.
A merchant —
Ephraim is so far from being as Jacob, that you may account him a Canaanite, a
subtle merchant.
Verse 8
[8] And
Ephraim said, Yet I am become rich, I have found me out substance: in all my
labours they shall find none iniquity in me that were sin.
I am rich —
Whatever is said, yet I get what I aim at.
They shall find —
Yet he hugs himself in the apprehension of close carriage of his affairs, so
that no great crime can be found in him: none, that is sin, that is any great
enormity.
Verse 9
[9] And
I that am the LORD thy God from the land of Egypt will yet make thee to dwell
in tabernacles, as in the days of the solemn feast.
From Egypt —
From the time I brought thee out of it.
In tabernacles — I
have given thee all these blessings and comforts, expressed proverbially in
allusion to the joy which they had at the feast of tabernacles.
Verse 10
[10] I
have also spoken by the prophets, and I have multiplied visions, and used
similitudes, by the ministry of the prophets.
Spoken — To
warn them of their danger.
Verse 11
[11] Is
there iniquity in Gilead? surely they are vanity: they sacrifice bullocks in
Gilgal; yea, their altars are as heaps in the furrows of the fields.
In Gilead —
Tiglah Pileser had formerly took Gilead among other towns, leading the
inhabitants captive. By this the prophet minds the Ephraimites what they must
expect, and doth it in this pungent question, Is there iniquity in Gilead? Is
it there only? Be it, Gilead was all iniquity; Gilgal is no better.
They —
They that come up to Gilgal to sacrifice, are idolaters.
In the furrows —
They are for number like heaps of stones, gathered out of plowed land and laid
in furrows.
Verse 12
[12] And
Jacob fled into the country of Syria, and Israel served for a wife, and for a
wife he kept sheep.
Fled —
For fear of Esau.
Verse 13
[13] And
by a prophet the LORD brought Israel out of Egypt, and by a prophet was he
preserved.
A prophet — By
Moses.
Israel —
Your forefathers.
Preserved — In
the wilderness. The aim of the prophet seems to be this, to prevent their vain
pride, and boasting of their ancestors.
Verse 14
[14]
Ephraim provoked him to anger most bitterly: therefore shall he leave his blood
upon him, and his reproach shall his Lord return unto him.
His blood — He
shall bear the punishment of all his blood; his murders of the innocent, and
his own guilt too.
His reproach —
Which Ephraim hath cast upon the prophets, the worshippers of God, and on God;
preferring idols before him.
His Lord —
God who is Lord of all.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Hosea》
12 Chapter 12
Verses 1-14
Verse 1
Ephraim feedeth on wind, and followeth after the east wind: he
daily increaseth lies and desolation.
The east wind in Palestine
Coming from Arabia and the far East, over large tracts of sandy
waste, is parching, scorching, destructive to vegetation, oppressive to man,
violent and destructive on the sea, and by land also, having the force of the
whirlwind. “The east wind carrieth him away, and he departeth, and as a
whirlwind hurleth him out of his place” (Job 27:21). In leaving God and following
idols, Ephraim fed on what is unsatisfying, and chased after what is
destructive. If a hungry man were to feed on wind, it would be light food. If a
man could overtake the east wind, it were his destruction. Israel “fed on wind
when he sought by gifts to win one who could aid him no more than the wind; ‘he
chased the east wind’ when, in place of the gain which he sought, he received
from the patron whom he had adopted no slight loss.” Israel sought for the
scorching wind, when it could betake itself under the shadow of God. “The
scorching wind,” says St. Cyril, “is the burning of calamities, and the
consuming fire of affliction.” “He increaseth lies and desolation”; for
unrepented sins and their punishment are, in God’s government, linked together;
so that to multiply sin is, in fact, to multiply desolation. Sin and punishment
are bound together as cause and effect. “Lying will signify false speaking,
false dealing, false opinions, false worship, false pretences for colour
thereof, false hopes, or relying on things that will deceive. In all these
kinds was Ephraim at that time guilty, adding one sort of lying to another.” (E.
B. Pusey, D. D.)
Feeding on wind
This is a proverbial speech to note--
1. The following after vain, unprofitable things. When men please
themselves in their own conceits and in their own counsels, and walk in ways
that are, and certainly will be, unprofitable to them, they are said to feed on
wind. When men think to please God with their own inventions, to escape danger
by their own shifts, to prevail against the saints by their deep counsels and
fetches, they feed upon wind; when men promise to themselves great matters by
ways of their own, that are not God’s, they feed upon wind, and for all this
the prophet rebukes the ten tribes.
2. The prevailing pride and elation of heart. According to the food,
so will the body be; those that feed on wind must needs have hearts puffed up
with conceitedness of themselves, and contempt of others that are not in the
same way as themselves: they lie sucking imaginary content and sweetness in
their own ways; they are full of themselves. They feed on wind, yet one prick
of disappointment will quickly let out all the wind from such bladders.
3. Dependence on carnal creature comforts. Evil men that live upon
the applause of men, upon honours, feed on wind, and are puffed up for awhile;
but any prick of God’s appearing against them lets out the windy stuff, and
quickly they are dead. Any member of the body that is puffed up with wind seems
to be greater than any other part, but it is not stronger; no, it is
consequently the weaker: and so it is with the hearts of men that are puffed up
with windy conceits and with creature contentments, they have no strength by
this inflation; though they seem stronger, yet when they are called either to
do or to suffer for God, they then appear to be very weak, and therefore will
change as the wind changes. Illustrate by the chameleon.
4. The turbulent, unquiet disposition of such. We know that the wind
raises tempests and storms; and so men that are puffed up with, the wind of
their own conceits are the men that raise such tempests and storms in the
places where they live. The saints have better food to feed upon, food that
makes them more solid and more staid.
Learn--
1. Creature comforts will prove but wind. Those who seek to satisfy
themselves with such, and to stay themselves on their own conceits, not only
deceive themselves, and will be disappointed at last in their expectations, but
they will find these their ways to be very pestilential, hurtful, and
dangerous; they will find that they will undo them and bring them to utter
misery.
2. It is a grievous thing, when troubles come, to have nothing within
us to bear us out but the wind. Suppose men meet with the rough east wind, or
storms and tempests befall them, yet if they have had solid food, whereby they
come to get good blood and marrow and spiritS, they may be able to bear it; but
when the body is empty and meets with tempests, this is very grievous to the
poor frame. So it is with many when they meet with afflictions; but the saints
have such solidity within them as bears them out, but other men that are empty,
that have fed upon the wind all their days, have nothing to bear them out in
great afflictions, but their hearts sink down in horror and despair. (Jeremiah
Burroughs.)
Worthless soul-food
Delitzsch renders, “Ephraim grazeth wind.” The idea is that
it sought for support and satisfaction in those things which were utterly
unsubstantial and worthless “wind.”
I. Sensual
indulgences are worthless soul-food.
II. Worldly
instructions are worthless soul-food.
III. Religious
formalities are worthless soul-food. (Homilist.)
And will punish Jacob
according to his ways.
None can sin with impunity
You are only under grace as long as you keep clear of God’s law.
The moment you do wrong you put yourself under the law, and the law will punish
you. Suppose that you went into a mill, and the owner of that mill was your
best friend, even your father. Would that prevent your being crushed by the
machinery if you got entangled in it through ignorance or heedlessness? I think
not. Even so, though God be your best of friends, ay, your Father in heaven,
that will not prevent your being injured, it may be ruined, not only by wilful
sins, but by mere folly and ignorance. (Charles Kingsley.)
Verse 3-4
And by his strength he had power with God.
Wrestling Jacob
This story has a strange fascination for most Bible readers, due,
in part, to the vividness with which it is told; in part, to the deep spiritual
truth which it half reveals and half conceals. Jacob recalls in his prayer the
time when he passed this very place twenty years before as he fled from the wrath
of Esau. God has been with him, and prospered him. Let us picture again that
weird night scene. The almost oppressive silence was only broken by the roar of
the shallow Jabbok, which writhed and struggled between obstructing rocks as it
plunged and tumbled to the Jordan valley two miles below. We can see the rough
waters gleam under the torches as drove after drove of animals splashed and
ploughed their way through,--the goats and the sheep, the camels and the
cattle, the asses and their foals are carefully arranged in successive relays,
to appease the wrath of Esau. Then, in two companies, his frightened household
followed, and the sounds died away again until nothing was left but the
deepened roar of the turbulent stream beside him, which seemed to intensify the
dead silence all around. Jacob was left alone. He was anxious, and apprehensive
of what might happen. He was a greedy man, and he stood to lose, at one stroke,
the wealth which represented the struggles of twenty years. He was an intensely
affectionate man, and it seemed as if wives and children might be snatched away
from him at one fell swoop: “I fear lest Esau come and smite me, the mother and
the children.” Then, through the long night there wrestled with him man till
daybreak--till the reach of the Jabbok flashed again in the sudden Syrian
sunrise. As he lay there in the growing light, thrown, exhausted, he knew it
was no man who had striven with him. In the sunrise he had seen God face to
face. So he called the place Peniel--God’s face. But that is only the outside
of the story, the body of this experience. What is its inner meaning? An
instinct tells us that this is the record of a moral and spiritual struggle,
which doubtless has its counterpart in the human life of these breathless days.
That shrivelled tendon was the mark left in Jacob’s body of a moral and
spiritual struggle--the crisis of his history. We know the long night ended in
tearful and penitent prayer. What makes me feel certain that this is the record
of a moral and spiritual struggle is the undoubted fact that from that day a
great moral change came over Jacob--a change represented by his new name. He
was no longer Jacob--sly, subtle, crafty, tricky Jacob, he was an Israelite,
indeed, in whom there was no guile. He was Israel, God’s prince, for he had
prevailed. He not only had a new name, but a new nature. The blessing which
came with the dawn was the highest blessing which can ever come to any man--the
assurance that his better self would become increasingly his truest self. He was
a prince of God. It is not difficult to see that Jacob’s whole life had been
one long wrestle, a tough, hard struggle with others. He had wrestled for
bread, for love, for justice. Yes; and he had prevailed. He had succeeded, he
had reaped the fruit of struggle--strength. He had gained what comes with
victory--self-confidence. He had outwitted the crafty Laban. He went to his
uncle a penniless tramp; he left him a wealthy man. And now he comes back to
the land which was promised him. And here, on the very border and frontier of
it, just as he is about to grasp what seems to be already his, he is brought up
suddenly face to face with an old sin; and, as old sins are wont to do, it
unnerved him. Do you know men who sinned--twenty years ago? They have been successful
in spite of their sin--nay, by means of it, and God has given no sign. Then,
after twenty years, they are brought face to face with the consequences. They
do not ask now: What will it mean to me? There is a question which cuts deeper
than that: What will it mean to wife and children? If no one else were
involved, if the man knew definitely what it would mean and how it would end he
could face it. Though it brought ruin and exposure and shame, he could meet it
like a man, But when the vague dread of it hangs over his life, and he lies
awake at night and goes over all the possibilities and chances of what may
happen, and wonders if any contingency has been left unprovided for, till the
heart is sick with a nameless dread--then suspense becomes anguish. Now, that
was Jacob’s case. He had done all that foresight and long experience could
devise. He had sent messages, intended to convey to Esau the impression that he
was a man of some consequence--obsequious messages, toe, to “my lord Esau.” And
“my lord” sent back a soldier’s answer: “Esau cometh to meet thee with four
hundred men.” With great astuteness Jacob divides his household into two
companies, so that if Esau falls on one, the other may perhaps escape. His
trouble drives him to his knees, for with all his subtlety and shrewdness Jacob
was a praying man. He appeals, in his extremity--like many a trickster
since--to his father’s God. And yet, apprehension of his loss breaks through
his very prayer. He is a rich man now, and has much to lose “I am not worthy of
the least of all the mercies which Thou hast shewed unto Thy servant,. . .
deliver me, I pray Thee, from the hand of my brother.” In the very act of
prayer his subtle brain is scheming how he will send presents to Esau--not in a lump,
but first one, then another, drove after drove. He knew very well how to appeal
to the frank, generous heart of the rough twin-brother. What a mixture the man
is!--craft and prayer, cunning and faith, daring and dread!. . . “Then Jacob
was greatly afraid, and was distressed.” Does all this let any light on some
past experience of your own? You were walking, as you thought, in the way of
God’s leading--in obedience to His call--to some land of promise, and on the
very border of it you are suddenly brought face to face with some past wrong.
The power in which you trusted--the result of long experience--fails you. Your
self-confidence is rudely shaken. You betake yourself to prayer, and yet you
will not trust wholly in that either; you do all that foresight can suggest--and
stretch a point in doing it--to make quite sure that the blessing shall be
yours. You try to deal with God as you have dealt with men. Is that the meaning
of Jacob’s wrestling? You come to the very border of your land of promise. It
is almost your own. And you will make quite sure of it by human means,--as if
God could be tricked and managed, as if the blessing must be wrested from
unwilling hands. Then you find that you have more than Esau to deal with. There
is another Antagonist--unknown, mysterious, persistent. So you struggle on
through the darkness, unwilling to cast aside the powers which have never
failed when dealing with your fellows. Does not your own experience interpret
this story for you? Then, at daybreak, with one touch the nameless wrestler
shrivels the strongest muscle in Jacob’s body, and shows what He might have
done at any moment. The strong man falls back spent and thrown. His
self-confidence is broken, he has met more than this match.
Nay,
but I yield, I yield;
I
can hold out no more!
Is that the end, then? It would have been with some men, but Jacob
clings with all his remaining strength to his great antagonist, until he wrings
a blessing from the struggle. It was after his defeat, you observe, after
he was worsted and thrown, that he prevailed. Look at the text again (R.V.
margin), “In his strength he strove with God; yea, he strove with the angel,
and prevailed.” But how? In this way: “He wept, and made supplication unto
Him.” He supplicates the possession he cannot win. The blessing he sought to
wring from God was his in a free and gracious gift. The sun rose on a changed
and chastened life. But the long struggle had left its mark on him. He halted
on his thigh. He lost the proud, self-confident swing in his gait. He was a
humbler and a better man. Is that an old story I have been telling you? Is it
not your story? Yours and mine? Do you remember that dark and troubled day when
the Unseen asserted its rights--when you wrestled, but not with flesh and
blood? And you found that the tricks and quirks which avail in that warfare
were no use, for you were dealing with God. Is that the explanation of some
struggle in the darkness which is going on here and now? Have we never heard of
the striving of the Spirit? Is that the meaning of some bitter disappointment
which comes unexpectedly into the life of some self-confident man who has
hitherto never known what failure means? The power which wrestles with you is a
power which longs to bless. If you will cling with all your strength, it may be
you will come out of that struggle crowned and with a new name, because in the
struggle you have learned His name, and in defeat you have learned to pray. (A.
Moorhouse, M. A.)
Jacob’s strength
The strength that God puts into us, though it be God’s own, yet
when we have it, and work by it, God accounts it as ours; it is called Jacob’s
strength, though the truth is, it was God’s strength. It is a great honour to
manifest much strength in wrestling with God in prayer. In this was the honour
of Jacob, with his strength he prevailed with God. We should not come with weak
and empty prayers, but we should put forth strength; if a Christian has any
strength in the world for anything, he should have it in prayer. According to
the strength of the fire, the bullet, ascends; so according to what strength we
put forth in prayer, so is our prevalence. This strength of Jacob was a type of
the spiritual strength which God gives His saints when they have to deal with
Him. See Ephesians 3:16. Surely the strength is
great that is by the Spirit of God, but such strength shall manifest the glory
of the Spirit of God. This is the strength attainable for Christians, even here
in this world. Let us not be satisfied with faint desires and wishes, when
Jesus Christ is tendered to us as the fountain of strength. But do you walk so
that your strength manifests that such riches of the glory of God dwell in you?
Christians should seek to be strengthened with all might, according to the
glorious power of God. The way to prevail with men is to prevail with God. (Jeremiah
Burroughs.)
Jacob’s victory and our duty
The prophet takes the opportunity of showing the difference
between their conduct and that of Jacob, after whom they were called. His
design in doing so was to make them know that, if they expected to be saved, it
was not by proving their descent from Jacob, but by acting as did that pious
patriarch when he was in danger and was suffering from the effects of his former
misconduct. Reference is to the scene of wrestling with the angel. We use it as
an example of the mode and nature of faithful and successful prayer. All must
pray, and to be heard must pray aright, in the same persevering manner as
Jacob, and in the same holy temper. We are taught, in other parts of Scripture,
to address our God with penitence, holiness, faith, and perseverance; and all
these essentials of acceptable devotion are illustrated in this narrative. (Beaver
H. Blacker, M. A.)
Israel unlike Jacob
Alas! a nearer view of Judah shows that all the descendants
of Jacob, in Zion as in Samaria, provoke judgment. How unlike the early
devotion and fervent faith of the pilgrim-patriarch their father! From the
strong prayer amidst the stones at Bethel, where the eternal pathway between
heaven and earth was opened in vision, and from the wrestling of supplication
at Peniel, what moral degeneracy a idst the wealthy traffic adopted in Canaan!
And what a cry to God may not the prophet raise for a restoration of the old
simple tent-life, when it seemed natural to men that God should raise up
speakers of His will, and quicken their spiritual life by fervent preachers! In
those days of prophets Israel dwelt safely: under her kings she sins and
suffers. God spared the ten tribes, notwithstanding that Jeroboam, the son of
Nebat, made them sin. Now, since idolatry multiplies, since Baal is worshipped,
and perhaps even human bloodshed, either to Moloch, or through contagion of
Moloch worship, notwithstanding Abraham’s purer faith had sought better
propitiations, the nation drifts like chaff, stubble, smoke. All God’s appeals
are in vain. Stolid and obstinate, the nation which God called to for a new
birth of a pious generation, and for new thoughts and hope, stands gazing on
its idols. God would have saved them from the Assyrian sword, and would have
foiled the besieger, and bidden death and the grave stay their devouring. But
since sinners do not repent, God cannot relent. (Rowland Williams, D. D.)
Bethel and Peniel
The house of God and the face of God. God is here. God is mine.
I. Jacob’s first
conversion. At Bethel Jacob cannot be called a “religious man.” He had come
into no personal relations with God. He acknowledged, but did not know, his
father’s God. His character had, as yet, received no shakings, so it had thrown
down no personal and independent rootings; there were no signs of the sway of
any central and unifying principles. He could still be described as “without
God in the world.” But out of the very consequences of his wrongdoings come the
beginnings of nobler things. The vision gives us the time when Jacob first
entered into personal relations with God. It may help us to understand in what
our conversion to God essentially consists--a revelation of the personal God to
the soul; and the acceptance, by the soul, of the responsibilities of that
revelation. Jacob’s new life begins with a personal revelation of God. This is
the Divine arrest of the man in the very midst of his wilfulness and
selfishness. God guides him with the hand of His Providence, and sets him just
where He can best reveal to him Himself. We have no record of Jacob’s
struggling after the light, and at last reaching, after long efforts, to the
light of God. In his case there is no growing of knowledge into the wisdom of
God, no unfolding of moral feeling into spiritual life; but upon him, while
actually in his heedlessness, the revelation of God comes: a new fact of his
existence is impressively disclosed to him: this fact, that God, his father’s
God, Abraham’s God, was with him. That fact at once, and altogether, changes
the principle and spirit of his life. Religion is not a development; it is not
an education; it is not something which man can himself start and nourish. It
is the effect of a Divine salvation; an intervention of God; a gracious mode of
bringing man into conscious and happy relations with God. It was a vision of
God, and an assurance of the Divine nearness to him, and care of him, that
bowed Jacob down with the profoundest awe and humiliation. The ungodly soul
felt that God was about him, close to him. The vision opened Jacob’s eyes--
1. To see God’s relation to his life. The vision showed God caring
for sinful, wandering Jacob, watching over his slumbers, peopling the desert for
him with ministering angels, and assuring him of unfailing guardianship. He
could never be the same man again when this fact had been brought home to his
very heart.
2. To feel a conviction of the Divine claims of God is here, I must
wait, listen, obey.
3. To realise the Divine love, the sovereign fulness and freeness of
Divine grace, Jacob woke in the morning to feel--God loves me, even me.
II. Jacob’s second
conversion. The wrestling represents the highest point in the spiritual history
of Jacob. It was the time in which Jacob learned the mystery and the joy of
trusting wholly, committing himself entirely to the Divine love and lead. The
wrestling at Jabbok is the close of a scene of which each part requires careful
attention. Anxious and scheming as he came within sight of Canaan, he had the
vision of the guarding angels to recall him from his schemings to trust. He had
hitherto only seen his helpless company and the approaching peril, and like the
prophet’s servant in later times, God opened his eyes to see, closer than any
danger, the two angel-bands of watchers. Recalled thus to the thought of God’s
nearness, Jacob feels that he must blend prudent schemes with prayer, and the
prayer he offers is full of humility, thankfulness, and pleading, that makes it
in many ways a model of prayer. But it is easily overestimated. It is the
prayer of one who is still rough too self-conscious, of one who has not yet
quite given up his guileful ways: there is still something of Jacob’s old
mistake of “making terms with God.” He is evidently learning his great
life-lesson, but the prayer shows that he has not fully learned it yet. It was
a kind of drama of his life which was acted through that night. It was a
gracious way of shewing Jacob what had been the mistake of his whole career. He
had always been wrestling. Now in his heart he was even wrestling with God. But
He will find that a very different thing. If it does seem that a man’s
wrestling brings mastery, it is only because God does not put forth His
strength in the conflict. When He does and Simply touches Jacob, the
confident wrestler, is prostrate and utterly helpless; he can wrestle no more,
he can only cling, he can only say, “Give me the blessing”; he gives up at last
all self-efforts to win the blessing. (Robert Tuck, B. A.)
Verse 5
Even the Lord God of hosts; the Lord is his memorial.
The name Jehovah as a memorial
To stir them up to present duty, Hosea describes God, who did all
this, and spake to Jacob, as the true God and God of armies. It teaches--
1. Christ is, without all controversy true God, the same in essence
and equal in power and glory with the Father; for this Angel (verse 4) is even
Jehovah, the God of hosts.
2. Great is their advantage and their dignity who have converse and
keep communion with God, who hath being of Himself, and who hath all creatures ready as hosts at His
command, as there is need. For this sets out Jacob’s advantage, that in his
wrestlings and other intercourse he had to do with the Lord God of hosts.
3. God is unchangeably still the same, as kind, able, and exorable to
His people as ever He was at any time, if they would come and make use of Him;
for He did all that to Jacob, not only for present use, but that, proving
Himself to be Jehovah, this might be His memorial for the use of His Church in
all generations; and upon this ground it is that in the next verse they are
exhorted to turn to Him. See Exodus 3:15.
4. The Lord
needs no images to keep up a memorial of Him; but His name and nature are
manifested in His word and works sufficiently to keep them who converse with
these in remembrance of Him; for Jehovah, and His manifesting Himself to be so,
is His memorial. (George Hutcheson.)
Verse 6
Therefore turn thou to thy God: keep mercy and Judgment, and wait
on thy God continually.
Instructions to the unconverted and to the converted
As encouragement to repentance, the example of the patriarch Jacob
is presented. Let the descendants of the patriarch copy his example; let them
seek God and walk with Him, as Jacob had done, and they would surely find Him,
and receive a blessing from Him in their turn. The advice was most seasonable.
It directed them to turn to God; and then to walk with Him in the duties and
comforts of true religion.
I. The instruction
to the unconverted. Turn thou to thy God. An unconverted person is one whose
heart is not changed and turned to God. Every person who is habitually proud,
sensual, or covetous, indulging a self-righteous spirit, or following sin with
greediness; or leading a worldly life, careless of his soul and eternity; every
]person who sins without remorse, and has, in fact, no other rule for his
conduct but his own interest, gain, or will--every such person is an
unconverted person. All unconverted persons are turned from God., They are
estranged from Him in heart and affections. Those who are turned away from God
must be miserable the first step in real religion is conversion, that is, the
turning of the heart to God. There can be no real religion till this step be
taken. Do you inquire the way? There is but one way, even Jesus Christ. He is
“the way” Would you then turn to God, you must come to Him by this way. You
must draw nigh to God in faith; and pray to Him for Christ’s sake to be
reconciled unto you. You must beseech Him to grant to you the Spirit of Christ,
to work in you true repentance. Thus turning to Him, you will be graciously and
favourably received. He never casts out any souls that turn to Him through
Jesus Christ.
II. The instruction
vouchsafed to those who are already converted. “Keep mercy and judgment and
wait on thy God continually.” The converted are those who, having through grace
renounced the ways of sin and the course of this world, have turned unto God by
faith in Jesus Christ their Saviour; with penitent hearts have joined
themselves unto Him, and, being justified by faith, have peace with God. The
instruction divides itself into two parts--
1. “Keep mercy and judgment.” All who turn to God should be careful
to maintain good works. They are called with a holy calling, and their life and
conversation should accord with it. In mercy. In exercising kindness and
compassion to all. In judgment. In doing justice and righteousness; in
rendering, to all their due; in making restitution for wrongs or injuries
committed.
2. “Wait on thy God continually.” To wait upon God is to depend upon
Him; to exercise a believing expectation of receiving from Him all those
supplies and succours of which we stand in need. (E. Cooper.)
The “power room”
The quietest room in a Lancashire cotton mill is the engine room.
It is significantly called the “power room” of the mill. But from that quietest
room emerges all the force which speeds the busy looms in their process of
production. Let the engine be neglected, let countless looms be added without
proportional increase of power, and the mill breaks down. We have been
neglecting our quietest room, our power room; we have been adding to the strain
without multiplying the force, and the effects are seen in weariness,
joylessness, and ineffectiveness. We must not work less, but we must pray more.
(Life of C. A. Berry, D. D.)
Verses 7-9
He is a merchant, the balances of deceit are in his hand: he
loveth to oppress, etc.
Fortunes
I. Fortunes badly
used.
1. Here there is no recognition of human co-operation. No man comes
in possession of wealth without the efforts of some men either living or dead.
Wealth, in most cases, is the result of the efforts of a large number of human
workers But the possessor oftentimes takes no note of this. He thinks only of
himself.
2. Here there is no recognition of Divine agency. All fortunes come
of God. Out of His materials, out of His seasons, out of the activity of His
creatures. Many fortunes are held and employed in a spirit of haughty egotism.
II. Fortunes badly
made.
1. Here is fraud. There is deceit everywhere. In all fabrics,
groceries, trade commodities. Deceit in making, deceit both in the buying and
the selling.
2. Here is oppression. Fraud is oppression, in some form or other.
3. Here is cunning. Ephraim--this typical fortune-maker--took such
care to conceal all that was unfair and nefarious in his operations that he was
certain no wrong could be found in his doings. Many who have made a fortune by
a swindle have so guarded the transaction that they have clapped their hands
and said, “None will ever find it out.”
III. Fortunes badly
ended. To all such fortune-holders and fortune-makers retribution must come
sooner or later. (Homilist.)
And Ephraim said, Yet I am
become rich, I have found me out substance.--
I am rich
Literally, I am simply rich, in all my labours they shall find
none iniquity that is sin. It was the custom of the trade; that is how it is.
In forty pounds weight of calico put sixteen pounds weight of china clay--it is
the custom of the trade: a custom more honoured in the breach than in the
observance. Sell for ten yards of cloth nine yards and seven-eighths. A man
likes an eighth of a lie; a little fraction of falsehood is a kind of condiment
in his supper; it is the custom of the trade. And especially if a man, after
doing this, can take the chair at a missionary meeting, and speak lugubriously
and tediously about the condition of the heathen he has never seen, but often
cheated; he feels that there is none iniquity in him that is sin; he says,
Business is business. He always says that when he wins; when he loses he says,
There ought to be
some morality in business after all. (Joseph Parker, D. D.)
Keeping up appearances
I. The hiding of
sin. Ephraim is in truth most unrighteous, but he contrives to sin in such a
way that he appears innocent. And do we not attempt by many subtilties to hide
the real qualities of our actions, to shelter ourselves from their just
penalties?
1. Men sin deeply, and yet keep within the civil law. National and
international law were scrupulously observed by Ephraim. Men still flatter
themselves that they keep the law of the land. A man may do that and still be
an infinite scoundrel. He may be guilty of gross dishonesty. He may keep the
civil law with very little sense of generosity. We may be guilty of deep
cruelty to our fellows, and the law of the magistrate takes no cognisance of
our actions. Often the very worst escape, whilst those far less guilty are denounced
and punished.
2. Men sin deeply, and yet keep within public opinion. A public
opinion exists which is more strict and pervasive than the civil law. This
public opinion we are bound to respect, we do respect it, and some of us are
abundantly satisfied if we succeed in meeting its exactions. But how much
personal, commercial, political immorality is yet untouched by public opinion!
A man may be a rascal, and yet a gentleman. With a plausible tongue, a polished
style, with fine phrases and fine manners, a man may be guilty of fraud,
cruelty, uncleanness, and yet remain throughout popular in society! Rotten at
the core, he is painted on the rind, and the world sees the skin and not the
soul. Some of the handsomest butterflies have the strangest tastes--they turn
aside from the most glorious flowers to sip filthiest messes.
3. We sin deeply, and yet maintain the sense of personal dignity.
Ephraim hid the fact of his guiltiness by looking at his successfulness. Men
still forget their sinfulness in their prosperity. A man may be a conqueror,
and yet his glory be his shame; he may attain honour, and his scarlet robe be
the fitting sign of his scarlet sins; he may grow rich, and every coin in his
coffers witness against him. “His honour rooted in dishonour stood.” Proud,
selfish, dishonest, sensual men flatter themselves in their own eyes until
their iniquity is found to be hateful.
4. Men sin deeply, and yet keep within ecclesiastical discipline.
Ephraim would do no iniquity that were sin from an ecclesiastical point of
view. Yet all the while he was guilty of falsehood, robbery, injustice,
uncleanness; he called himself Israel, but God called him a Canaanite. A man
may be a terrible sinner, and yet observe all the ceremonial law.
II. Mark the
inevitable exposure and punishment of sin. Cleverly disguised as sin may be, it
will surely suffer detection. God knows nothing about appearances; He knows us
as we think in our heart. And what stands revealed is bound to meet with just
retribution. “Then in all life let us--
1. Aim at the highest; and--
2. Test ourselves by the highest; let us judge ourselves in the sight
of God, and by the absolute standard. (W. L. Watkinson.)
Verse 9
Make thee to dwell in tabernacles, as in the days of the solemn
feast.
The feast of tabernacles as a type
This feast was the yearly remembrance Of God’s miraculous guidance
and support of Israel through the wilderness. It was the link which bound on
their deliverance from Egypt to the close of their pilgrim life, and their
entrance into their rest. The passage of the Red Sea, like baptism, was the
beginning of God’s promises. By it Israel was saved from Egypt and from
bondage, and was born to be a people of God. Yet, being the beginning, it was
plainly not the completion, nor could they themselves complete it. The
wilderness dangers had to be surmounted. It was a time of the visible presence
of God. It was a long trial time, and they were taught entire dependence on
God; a time of sifting, in which God proved His faithfulness to those who
persevered. Standing there, between the beginning and the end of the
accomplishment of God’s promise to Abraham and to them, it was a type of His
whole guidance of His people at all times. It was a pledge that God would lead
His own, if often, “by a way which they knew not,” yet to rest with Him. The
yearly commemoration of it was not only a thanksgiving for God’s past mercies;
it was a confession also of their present relation to God, that “here we have
no continuing city”; that they still needed the guidance and support of God;
and that their trust was not in themselves, nor in man, but in Him. This they
themselves saw. “When they said, ‘Leave a fixed habitation, and dwell in a chance
abode,’ they meant that the command to dwell in tabernacles was given to teach
us that no man must rely on the height or strength of his house, or on its good
arrangements, though it abound in all good; nor may he rely on the help of any
man, not though he were lord and king of the whole earth, but must trust Him by
whose Word the worlds were made. For with Him alone is power and faithfulness,
so that whereinsoever any man may place his trust he shall receive no
consolation, from it, since in God alone is refuge and trust.” The feast of
tabernacles was also a yearly thanksgiving for the mercies with which God had
crowned the year. The joy must have been even the greater since it followed, by
five days only, after the mournful day of atonement, its rigid fast from
evening to evening, and its confession of sin. Joy is greater when ushered in
by sorrow; sorrow for sin is the condition of joy in God. The Feast of
Tabernacles was, as far as it could be, a sort of Easter after Lent. At the
time when Israel rejoiced in the good gifts of the year, God made them express,
in act, their fleeting condition in this life. It must have been a striking
confession of the slight tenure of all earthly things, when their kings and
great men, their rich men and those who lived at ease, had all, at the command
of God, to leave their sailed houses, and dwell for seven days in rude booths,
constructed for the season, pervious in some measure to the sun and wind, with
no fixed foundation, to be removed when the festival was passed. Because, says
a Jewish writer, at the time of the ingathering of the increase from the field,
man wishes to go from the field to his house to make a fixed abode there, the
law was anxious lest, on account of this fixed abode, his heart should be lifted
up at having found a sort of palace, and he should “wax fat and kick.”
Therefore it is written, “All that are Israelites born shall dwell in booths.”
Whoso begins to think himself a citizen in this world, and not a foreigner, him
God biddeth leave his ordinary dwelling, to remove into a temporary lodging, in
order that, leaving these thoughts, he may learn to acknowledge that he is only
a stranger in this world, and not a citizen, in that he dwells as in a
stranger’s hut, and so should not attribute too much to the shadow of his
beams, but “dwell under the shadow of the Almighty.” Every year the law was
publicy read in the feast. Ephraim was living clean contrary to all this. He
boasted in his wealth, justified himself on the ground of it, ascribed it and his
deliverance from Egypt to his idols. He would not keep the feast, as alone God
willed it to be kept. While he existed in his separate kingdom, it could not
be. Their political existence had to be broken that they might be restored. God
then conveys the notice of the impending punishment in words which promised the
future mercy. He did not then make them to dwell in tabernacles. For all
their service of Him was out of their own mind, contrary to His will,
displeasing to Him. This, then, “I will yet make thee to dwell in
tabernacles,” implies a distnt mercy, beyond and distinct from their present
condition. Looking on beyond the time of the Captivity, He says that they shall
yet have a time of joy, “as in the days of the solemn feast.” God would give
them a new deliverance, but out of a new captivity, The Feast of the
Tabernacles typifies this our pilgrim-state, the life of simple faith in God,
for which God provides; poor in this world’s goods, but rich in God. The church
militant dwells, as it were, in tabernacles; hereafter, we hope to be “received
into everlasting habitations” in the Church triumphant. (E. B. Pusey, D. D.)
The days of Moed
1. Explanation. Of ancient agreement, or according to appointed days;
for God had promised to give the land of Canaan to the posterity of Abraham for
their perpetual rest. Explanation--
2. Israelites are here reproved, because they neglected the command
of God, who had instituted a festal day, on which they were to commemorate
yearly their redemption. Explanation--
3. The prophet threatens the Israelites, as though he said, “God will
again drive you out, that you may dwell in tents, as you formerly did in the
desert.” Explanation--
4. “Inasmuch as your former redemption has lost its influence through
your wicked forgetfulness, I will become again your redeemer; I will therefore
make thee to abide in tents as formerly; as your first redemption avails
nothing, I will add a second, that you may at length repent, and know how much
you are indebted to Me.” (John Calvin.)
Verse 10
I have also spoken by the prophets.
The responsibility of having the revealed Word of God
This is a further declaration of God’s goodness to this
people, and an upbraiding of them for their wickedness, when they have had so
many means.
1. It is God who speaks by the prophets. Though the prophets and the
messengers of God are mean, yet so long as they speak to you in His name, the
authority of what they say is above any. They may be under their auditors in
many ways, but the message they bring is above them; though they are weak, the
power of God goes along with what they speak, to make it good. The Word does
little good till men come to apprehend this, that it is God who speaks by His
messengers.
2. It is a great mercy to a people for God to reveal His mind to them
by His prophets. What would all the world be but as a dungeon of darkness, were
it not for the prophets and ministers of God?
3. God will take account of what becomes of the word, labour, and
pains of His prophets. So He here upbraids Ephraim with them. God will take
account of all the spirits that His ministers spend, of every drop of their
sweat, and of all their watchings in the night; I sent My prophets, rising
early. God will take account of all, and you shall know that there has been a
prophet among you; the ministers shall be brought out to say and testify,
“Lord, I was in such a place, and I revealed Thy mind thus unto them; they
could not but be convinced, and yet still they continued in their wickedness.”
(Jeremiah Burroughs.)
And used similitudes.
The figurative and literal in Scripture
There is a strong tendency of the mind to delight in
figurative descriptions above literal statements. Unless all the powers of the
mind are equally cultivated; unless there is a due balance of the faculties
preserved in all mental operations, the imagination will certainly prevail; and
there will be felt a reluctance to relinquish the splendid object of
contemplation in which the imagination is interested, for what might be called
a cold contemplation of truth in its literality. We never rise to the
fountain-head of truth till we have seen it literally; till we have stripped it
of all figurative dress, till we have seen it in its own soberness and its own
simplicity, we have never seen it as it is; and figurative language is employed
for the purpose of giving to the mind such an interest in the truth to be
understood, as will lead to the literal contemplation of it. Many things
operate in the production of figurative language. Such as the limited
vocabulary of uncivilised and early nations. The state of things in Eastern
countries, luxurious vegetation, etc. What are we to lay down as the principles
on which we are to deal with figurative language? We have to inquire whether
the language is employed in reference to a vision, or whether it is the mere
result of prophetic inspiration. Figurative language in visions is not to be
taken literally. A great number of predictions are delivered in figurative
language. By a “similitude” we under stand something resembling what it is
desired to describe. Orientals frequently selected things to be the signs of
words, instead of words themselves. Parables, though often taken literally, are
nothing more than similitudes. Parables are sometimes intended to illustrate
simply one idea, and meaning should not be forced into the mere parts of a
parable. A safe rule would be, always to take the language of Scripture
literally, except when that would involve an absurdity. How often has the cause
of God been traduced by its adversaries, how often burlesqued by the infidel,
in consequence of the extravagant and figurative interpretations Of its own
friends! The figurative interpretation, that is, taking figures for
liberalities, began with a pagan school of philosophers, who, when converted,
brought their mystical philosophy into their interpretation of Scripture.
Unfortunately this method has come to be styled “spiritual” interpretation.
Those who offer these interpretations to the people, and often bewilder their
minds by them, interpret by no rule, and on no principle: just what they like
they deem to be meant; just what they feel to be beautiful is accepted by them;
just what they feel to be interesting is declared, to be true. (John Burnet.)
Everybody’s sermon
Among the rest of God s agencies for striking the attention and
con science of the people, was the use of similitudes. The prophets were
accustomed not only to preach, but to be themselves as signs and wonders to the
people. God is every day preaching to us by similitudes. Providence is God’s
sermon.
I. Begin with the
early morning. This morning you awaked, and put on your garments. By a
similitude God reminded you that you needed a garment for your soul. Taking
meals. Going to business. Returning home in the evening, all are similitudes.
II. All the year
round god doth preach to man by similitudes. Seed-time. Then the time of blade;
of ear, of full corn in the ear. The migration of birds. The wind, heat, etc.
III. Every place to
which you journey, every animal you see, every spot you visit, has a sermon for
you. Journeying, the mountains, the sea, all have their lesson for us.
IV. Every man in
his calling has a sermon preached to him. Illustrate from the farmer, the
baker, the butcher, the brewer, the salesman, the writer, the doctor, the
builder, the jeweller, etc. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Despising God’s Word
God speaks after the manner of men. It is enough to take away
every excuse from men to allege the fact, that they obey not the Word, and
offer not themselves to God as submissive and teachable, when He by His
prophets exhorts them to repentance. It is an enhancing of sin when God says He
has uselessly spent all His efforts to collect the dispersed Israel, through
the labours of His prophets. (John Calvin.)
God’s method in teaching the great teachers of the world
God is the great Teacher of mankind. He teaches the best lessons
in the best way and for the best purpose. God has always employed prophets in
His great school for humanity. The text indicates His method of teaching them.
I. By visions. He
gives to these men inner revelations, unfolds to them spiritual realities,
opens their spiritual eyes, and bids them look. What wonderful visions Isaiah,
Ezekiel, Daniel, Paul, and John had. These visions serve to show three things.
1. The distinguishing glory of the human mind.
2. The accessibility of the human mind to God.
3. The reality of spiritual things.
II. By similitude.
He showed them the invisible by the visible, the spiritual by the sensuous. He
gave them parables. There are good reasons for this mode of teaching spiritual
truth.
1. It makes the spiritual more attractive.
2. It makes the material appear more Divine. (Homilist.)
“Take heed how you hear”
The Lord takes account of the manner of men’s preaching as
well as the things they preach. Men may have their sins aggravated, not only
for standing out against the Word, but against the Word so and so delivered.
The main necessary truths of God are made known to all, but to some they are
given in a more sweet and winning way, in a more convincing manner than to
others. (Jeremiah Burroughs.)
Verse 14
Therefore shall He leave his blood upon him.
The blood-figure: sin and guilt left upon the sinner
That is, he shall bring his sin upon his own head. Those
that be wilful in sin, their blood be upon their own heads that is the meaning.
Never stand excusing any more, you have warning enough. If you will go on in
your way, the blood be upon your own head, you will undo yourselves, and there
is no help. Mark the phrase, “Therefore shall He leave his blood upon him.”
When God brings the guilt and punishment of sin on a man’s own head, and there
leaves it, that is sad indeed. It is happiness when it may be said of God, He
has made the sin and the guilt to pass away from the sinner. But on the other
side, when God leaves the sin, with its attendant guilt, upon the sinner, there
is woe indeed. The Lord many times brings His saints unto the fire of
afflictions, but He will not leave them there; but when He brings the wicked
into the fire, there He leaves them. (Jeremiah Burroughs.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》