Hosea 11:1-4

CRITICAL NOTES.

Hosea 11:1.] The prophet shows how Israel had repaid God’s love in the past with ingratitude and unfaithfulness. Child] “First-born son” (Exodus 4:22), the infancy in Egypt and the wilderness; son by election. Called] Brought safely out, typical of Christ’s call (Matthew 2:15), and of redemption through him.

Hosea 11:2. They] Moses, Aaron, and prophets; many calls, but Israel drew back from them, went after gods.

Hosea 11:3. I taught] Lit. set Ephraim on his feet (cf. Deuteronomy 1:31; Deuteronomy 8:2; Deuteronomy 8:5; Nehemiah 9:21; Isaiah 63:9). God supported them as a nurse her child, gently taught them to walk, and carried them when tired (Numbers 11:12. See Acts 13:18, marg.). Knew] Ignored God’s kindness, perceived not God’s design to restore them (Exodus 15:26).

Hosea 11:4. Cords of a man] Par. to “bands of love,” “cords with which men are led, more especially children that are weak upon their feet, in contrast with ropes, with which men control wild, unmanageable beasts (Psalms 32:9), are a figurative representation of the paternal humane guidance of Israel” [Keil]. Take off] Heb. lift up, i.e. push the yoke higher up, to relieve oxen, that they might eat with comfort and ease. Pusey gives, “I was regarded by them as putting the yoke on, ever placing some new yoke or constraint upon them,” but the words indicate God’s continued goodness. Laid meat] Gave means of grace and manifestations of mercy in abundance; manna in the desert.

HOMILETICS

GOD’S PATERNAL CARE AND MAN’S UNGRATEFUL RETURN.—Hosea 11:1

There is a wonderful cluster of blessings in these verses, every one of which is significant, and the whole especially puts men under deep obligation.

I. God’s great kindness. God loved, trained, and treated his people with the greatest care, though they sinned and rebelled against him. This kindness is displayed—

1. In the love of a parent towards a son. “When Israel was a child then I loved him.” (a) This love is free. God loved them not because they were better and more numerous than others. He loved them of his own free will, and chose them because he loved them (Deuteronomy 7:7). (b) This love is undeserved. “When a child,” wayward and self-willed, foolish and disobedient. We love children because they are like us, or because they please us. But God loves men that are unlike him in character and helpless in condition (Romans 5:6). This love is sovereign and undeserved; “for we were by nature children of wrath, even as others.” When forlorn and outcast, God loves men and adopts them into his family.

2. In the power of a redeemer to a captive. “And called my son out of Egypt.” God not only called by the voice of his servants, but gave power to obey the call. Men are called for years, but do not, are unwilling and unable to come to God. The Spirit makes us willing in the day of God’s power; reluctance is overcome; we rise and obey the call. Power in a redeemer is a necessity. We cannot trust a Saviour who cannot deliver us. But in Christ omnipotence is linked with love, power is employed for the ends of mercy and the salvation of man. Redemption from Egypt is a type of deliverance from sin, death, and hell. “For he shall save his people from their sins.”

3. In the tenderness of a nurse for a child. “I taught Ephraim also to go, taking them by their arms.” Like a mother or nurse, training a child in leading-strings, God carries men when young, upholds them when weak, and teaches them gradually and gently to walk in his commands. He takes them by their arms, lifts them up from dust and despair, and teaches them “to go” in pursuit of better things. It is the privilege of God’s people not only to be loved and delivered, but taught and guided. When weak and weary, in paths rough and dark, God is with them, leading them about, and instructing them and keeping them as the apple of his eye (Deuteronomy 32:10). “In the wilderness where thou hast seen how that the Lord thy God bare thee, as a man doth bear his son, in all the way that ye went, until ye came into this place” (Deuteronomy 1:31; Acts 13:18).

4. In the skill of a physician towards the sick. “I healed them.” God’s people are not only cared for, but cured in sickness and sorrow. Sin is self-injury, but God is our happiness and health. Men inflict wounds upon heart and mind, destroy themselves, but in God is their help (Hosea 13:9). God cures their sicknesses and pardons their sins, aids their infirmities and heals their diseases (Psalms 103:3). No other physician can close our wounds and putrefying sores, no earthly ointment can mollify our bruises. “I am the Lord that healeth thee.”

5. In the kindness of a master towards his servants.

1. Kindness in drawing men into his service. They are alienated and distant from God, naturally ill disposed and unable to come to him. All who come are drawn, “Draw me and I will run after thee.” Compulsory piety tends to infidelity. Lord Bolingbroke was compelled to peruse volumes of controversial Divinity when far too young to understand them. This perhaps implanted in his mind seeds of aversion to the truths of the Bible. (a) This drawing is by love, “with bands of love.” Love only can draw, cruelty drives. God uses no violence nor force, never tries harsh when gentle means will do. The law affects us like frost the stream; it hardens and stagnates the soul: but the love of God, like the shining sun and the gentle shower, melts the cold and breaks the heart into gushing streams. Teachers who rule with a rod, and parents who govern with a frown, will not win affection and obedience. God draws by loving-kindness, and wins to his service by love. “I treat my enemies so well that I compel them to be my friends,” said Alexander the Great. “No cord or cable,” says Burton, “can draw so forcibly, or bind so fast, as love can do with only a silken thread.” (b) This drawing is in harmony with our moral nature. “With cords of a man.” Men are not used like dumb driven cattle, but treated as responsible and rational creatures. In the promises of the gospel, the work of the Spirit, and the character of Christ, we are looked upon as men, and not machines nor brutes. All God’s dealings are in harmony with our mental and moral constitution. “The love of Christ constraineth us” (2 Corinthians 5:14; 1 John 4:19).

2. Kindness in refreshing men in his service. (a) God relieves in distress. “I was to them as they that take off the yoke.” Like a merciful man who regardeth the life of his beast, he eased them of their burdens, and helped them in distress. Christ delivers from the yoke of bondage, and from the hands of our enemies (Leviticus 26:13). (b) God provides in want. “And I laid meat unto them.” Manna from heaven, water from the rock, and “food convenient for them,” were provided for his ancient people. In Christ there is no starvation nor stint. Blessings in abundance are given through him. Pardon, peace, and joy; relief from harassing care, and rest in perfect security. “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, and ye shall find rest unto your souls.”

II. Man’s ungrateful return. God has put men under deep obligations by his goodness. If the kind deeds of men bind us to think of them and love them, how much do we owe to God, to whose ceaseless bounty we owe every comfort of life? What he bestows upon us in kindness and constant care should be given back in sacrifice, incense, and devotion. “How unsuitable it is,” says Edwards, “for us who live only by kindness to be unkind.”

I’ve heard of hearts unkind, kind deeds

With coldness still returning;

Alas! the gratitude of men

Hath oftener left me mourning.

1. They reject Divine teaching. “As they called them, so they went from them.” Moses and Aaron, prophets and apostles, were unheeded. The more they were admonished the more careless they grew; the more pressing the teacher the more refractory the taught. Foolishness is bound in the hearts of children. When they are taught to go, they go from God into ways of sin. Divine instruction is needful and constantly given, yet many turn away in contempt. Christ is preached and the gospel offered, but men go to their merchandise and their farms. “Lo, they have rejected the word of the Lord, and what wisdom is in them?”

2. They despise Divine favours. “They knew not that I healed them.” They look to men as the source of blessings, as though by their own power and goodness they procure them. Ourselves and others are thanked, and God forgotten. We do not see the end of Divine chastisement, nor acknowledge Divine goodness in our prosperity. God is constantly ignored, and wilful ignorance leads to base ingratitude. “The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib; but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.”

3. They cling to their wicked course. “They sacrificed unto Baalam,” went from one god to another, “and burned incense to graven images.” When men forsake the true God, they cut, and grave, and adore idols of their own. This is self-abasement and self-destruction; a just ground of complaint with God, and a sad perversion in man. “I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.”

Blow, blow, thou winter wind,
Thou art not so unkind

As man’s ingratitude.

HOMILETIC HINTS AND OUTLINES

Hosea 11:1. The chap. begins with love; ancient, sovereign, electing love. The next sweet word is sonship. We see immediately after in the same verse, calling, salvation, deliverance. “I called my son out of Egypt” [Spurgeon].

Hosea 11:1; Hosea 11:3. God’s children young to be cared for; weak to be strengthened; ignorant to be taught; needy to be fed; tired to be refreshed.

Holding up.

1. To teach dependence.
2. To sustain the steps.

3. To regulate the walk. God keeps from falling, lifts up when down, gently, kindly, and gradually leads along in the path of virtue. What love and care! Be not afraid to trust in God, he may chide, but will never forsake you. He keepeth the feet of his saints (1 Samuel 2:9). He guideth their feet in the way of peace (Luke 1:79).

Hosea 11:4. Christian life a drawing from sin and the world to God, greater faith and attainments, to more intimate fellowship on earth, and heaven at length. “He did not say lead, but draw him. This violence is done to the heart, not to the body. Why marvel? Believe, and thou comest; love, and thou art drawn. Think it not a rough and uneasy violence: it is sweet, alluring; the sweetness draws thee” [Augustine]. “All the methods and parts of God’s government are twined together as twisted cords of love from God, so ordered that they ought to draw man with all his heart to love him again.”

God’s love in his word and in his providence lays us under strong obligation to duty. How thankful should we be that all things are prepared and provided for us day after day. But how aggravating that guilt which despises such love. “To sin against mercy is to sin against humanity; and as no surfeit is more dangerous than that of bread, so no judgment is more terrible than that which grows out of love felt and slighted” [Trapp].

ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 11

Hosea 11:1; Hosea 11:4. Drew them. No being ever yet drew another to him by a display of authority and terror. God himself never drew one soul to him by the law, which is only a system of authority and terror; but by the gospel, which is his scheme of mercy and grace. The whole of Christianity may be considered an infinite expediency, devised by the only wise God, to dispossess our minds of bad and unworthy thoughts, to fix in our trembling bosoms confidence, and thus to cause us to return to him. When we wish to influence a man we reason with him, inform his mind—we argue and persuade. This is precisely the method in which God deals with us. “He works in us to will and to do of his good pleasure” [Jay].

Who overcomes

By force, hath overcome but half his foe. [Milton].