Hosea taketh Gomer, and her children, Jezreel, Lo-ruhamah and Lo-ammi. 2 The beginning of the word of the LORD by Hosea. And the LORD said to Hosea, Go, take unto thee a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms: for the land hath committed great whoredom, departing from the LORD. 3 So be went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim; which conceived, and bare him a son. 4 And the LORD said unto him, Call his name Jezreel; for yet a little while, and I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu, and will cause to cease the kingdom of the house of Israel. 5 And it shall come to pass at that day, that I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel. 6 And she conceived again, and bare a daughter. And God said unto him, Call her name Loruhamah: for I will no more have mercy upon the house of Israel; but I will utterly take them away. 7 But I will have mercy upon the house of Judah, and will save them by the LORD their God, and will not save them by bow, nor by sword, nor by battle, by horses, nor by horsemen. 8 Now when she had weaned Lo-ruhamah, she conceived, and bare a son. 9 Then said God, Call his name Lo-ammi: for ye are not my people, and I will not be your God. 10 Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered; and it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, there it shall be said unto them, Ye are the sons of the living God. 11 Then shall the children of Judah and the children of Israel be gathered together, and appoint themselves one head, and they shall come up out of the land: for great shall be the day of Jezreel. LECTURE 1389. Of thanking God for our Christian calling. The idolatry of God's people is commonly rebuked by the prophets in language which describes it as fornication or adultery. Here we find Hosea directed to take to wife a woman of this wicked character, either one who had been so already, or one who would prove so afterwards, in order by this connexion to illustrate more forcibly the wickedness of the Israelites in departing from the Lord. It is as if God had said unto the prophet, In this violence to be done to thy affections, let my people see what a wrong they offer unto Me, what an affront they put upon my divine majesty, by proving unfaithful to my covenant, and bowing down to false gods and senseless idols. It is as if God said to us by the prophet, Language is not strong enough to move you, figures of speech will not work upon your obdurate hearts, see therefore and be astonished at this action, so abhorrent from my ways, yet done by my command, on purpose to harrow up your souls, and to make you feel heartily ashamed, and utterly confounded, whatsoever idolatry you are guilty of. "So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim; which conceived, and bare him a son." This son then was born to the prophet. Not so the daughter and son which followed. They are not said to have been born to "him." They were doubtless the "children of whoredoms." The first born son was named by God's commandment "Jezreel," a name signifying, The seed of God, or holy seed. This child was a type of those amongst the Israelites who were faithful worshippers of the Lord. And since many such had been slain by the successive kings of Jehu's family, God here takes occasion to declare, that He will avenge their blood upon the house of Jehu, and put an end to the kingdom of Israel, even causing the Israelites to be signally defeated in the valley called by the same holy name. The next child of the prophet's faithless wife had for its name Lo-ruhamah; a word which means, as we read in the margin of the Bible, "I will not add any more to." And God, in ordering this name to be given, signified, that He would no more have mercy upon "the house of Israel;" that is to say, on the kingdom of the ten tribes. This child then represented the apostate people of the ten tribes, the great multitude amongst them who had altogether departed from serving the living God. But whilst the rejection of "the house of Israel" is thus fearfully denounced, the voice of mercy is heard in favour of "the house of Judah," and a great salvation is foretold in their behalf. And for them too there is judgment as well as mercy. For the next child born by Hosea's faithless wife is probably to be looked upon as a type of Judah whilst idolatrous. And his name, "Loammi," means that which God had to say to them also, "ye are not my people, and I will not be your God." They too must go into captivity for their sins. Their kingdom must be overthrown; their temple too and their church cast down. Nevertheless they should be restored for a time, even until the coming of the Saviour whom they are here taught to look for. Then should the number of "the children of Israel," the Israelites in general, be greatly multiplied; the first converted Jews being the means chiefly used by God in gathering in the early churches of the Gentiles. Then should it come to pass, "that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, there shall it be said unto them, Ye are the sons of the living God." Let us thank God that it has been so said unto ourselves. Let us heartily give Him thanks for our Christian calling. And let us heartily pray, that all the children of Judah, yea all the children of Israel, throughout the world, may soon be gathered together under the same Head, and partake of the same joy and glory, with ourselves. The sins, judgments, and redemption of Israel. 1 Say ye unto your brethren, lovers, and none shall deliver Ammi; and to your sisters, Ru- her out of mine hand. hamah. 2 Plead with your mother, plead for she is not my wife, neither am I her husband: let her therefore put away her whoredoms out of her sight, and her adulteries from between her breasts; 3 Lest I strip her naked, and set her as in the day that she was born, and make her as a wilderness, and set her like a dry land, and slay her with thirst. 4 And I will not have mercy upon her children; for they be the children of whoredoms. 5 For their mother hath played the harlot she that conceived them hath done shamefully: for she said, I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, mine oil and my drink. 6 Therefore, behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and make a wall, that she shall not find her paths. 7 And she shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake them; and she shall seek them, but shall not find them: then shall she say, I will go and return to my first husband; for then was it better with me than now. 8 For she did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold, which they prepared for Baal. 9 Therefore will I return, and take away my corn in the time thereof, and my wine in the season thereof, and will recover my wool and my flax given to cover her nakedness. 10 And now will I discover her lewdness in the sight of her 11 I will also cause all her mirth to cease, her feast days, her new moons, and her sabbaths, and all her solemn feasts. 12 And I will destroy her vines and her fig trees, whereof she hath said, These are my rewards that my lovers have given me: and I will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field shall eat them. 13 And I will visit upon her the days of Baalim, wherein she burned incense to them, and she decked herself with her earrings and her jewels, and she went after her lovers, and forgat me, saith the LORD. 14 Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her. 15 And I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope: and she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt. 16 And it shall be at that day, saith the LORD, that thou shalt call me Ishi; and shalt call me no more Baali. 17 For I will take away the names of Baalim out of her mouth, and they shall no more be remembered by their name. 18 And in that day will I make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven, and with the creeping things of the ground: and I will break the bow and the sword and the battle out of the earth, and will make them to lie down safely. 19 And I will betroth thee unto me for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in lovingkindness, and in mercies. 20 I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness: and thou shalt know the LORD. and they shall hear the earth; 22 And the earth shall hear the corn, and the wine, and the oil; and they shall hear Jezreel. 23 And I will sow her unto me in the earth; and I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy; and I will say to them which were not my people, Thou art my people; and they shall say, Thou art my God. LECTURE 1390. 21 And it shall come to pass in that day, I will hear, saith the LORD, I will hear the heavens, The blessedness of the Gospel dispensation. The faithful among the Israelites are here first exhorted to address the whole nation as the common parent of themselves and of the unfaithful, and to plead with this their mother to repent and to amend. Her great offences are then set forth, the love of false gods, and an unthankful forgetfulness of all that Jehovah had done in her behalf. Next the judgments which would follow are denounced. And finally the door of hope is opened, and a prospect is held out of future restoration to peace and to prosperity, in terms which we cannot hesitate to apply to the dispensation of the Gospel. The return from the captivity in Babylon may have somewhat resembled the deliverance out of Egypt here alluded to. But both are types of a greater redemption. A greater than Moses is here; a greater than Ezra, Nehemiah, or Zerubbabel. Idolatry is to cease; and not only so, but also God is to be reverenced and loved. "The names of Baalim" are to be no more pronounced; and peace is proclaimed between man and man, whose wars are often more hard to stay than those between man and savage animals. An union, close as that of marriage, is to be formed with mankind by God, in faithfulness on man's part, and on God's "in righteousness, and in judgment, and in lovingkindness, and in mercies." What a striking description is here of the Gospel covenant! And what apt figures of the blessings which the Gospel offers to us all are these which follow: "I will hear, saith the Lord, I will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth; and the earth shall hear the corn, and the wine, and the oil; and they shall hear Jezreel !" The prayers of the faithful seed of God shall prevail. The blessings of nature shall be combined with those of grace. And the whole shall be crowned by the gracious assurance, "Thou art my people," addressed to those who heretofore had not been so; they answering, "Thou art my God." May He, who has long since sown this blessed seed in the world, make it to bear fruit more and more abundantly! May the heavens herein hear the earth, and the earth hear the joyful sound of an abundant harvest, in the multitude of sinners saved, even of saints gathered into the garner of the Lord! Hosea espouseth an adulteress for a sign unto Israel. 1 Then said the LORD unto me, Go yet, love a woman beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress, according to the love of the LORD toward the children of Israel, who look to other gods, and love flagons of wine. 2 So I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver, and for an homer of barley, and an half homer of barley: 3 And I said unto her, Thou shalt abide for me. many days; thou shalt not play the harlot, LECTURE 1391. That all Scripture must be consistent with God's holiness. There is a great variety of opinions as to the commands given to the prophet, both here and in the first chapter; it being thought difficult to conceive, that God would require of his prophet such a sacrifice of his own feelings, and even violation of his principles, as may seem to be implied in these injunctions. Hence some have supposed, that it was never meant that he should love or marry such wicked women as these; but only that he should speak to the Israelites of doing so, as a figurative way of representing their faithless conduct towards God. Others imagine, that "an adulteress" means an idolatrous woman. But both these explanations appear forced; and such as never would have occurred to any one upon reading the plain statements in the text, except as expedients to avoid a consequence supposed to be objectionable. Some again have supposed that the woman mentioned in the first chapter had not transgressed before the prophet took her to wife, but became afterwards such as there described. And yet the words look more as if the prophet was enjoined to take to wife a woman of abandoned character, one who either had borne or would bear children, whose father was not her husband. See ch. 1. 2. So again some consider the adulteress in the chapter before us as the same person with the wife mentioned in the first chapter. And yet the text rather leads us to suppose, that this is a distinct transaction; and that the prophet had to form a connexion of this objectionable kind more than once. And if so, it is better to understand these injunctions of the Lord, and the corresponding actions of the prophet, in their plain literal meaning; and then to examine reverently how they may best be reconciled with the goodness and holiness of God; well assured, that they are thoroughly consistent therewith, whether we understand how, or not. Be it observed then, that however great a sinner the woman might be, it does not follow that the prophet committed sin in |