_COME BACK! COME BACK!_ Hosea 14:1 All sin is departing from God. Holiness is living near to God. The first thing a sinner has got to do is to return. Repentance is returning to God. How is a sinner to return? God in His infinite mercy and condescension has given to us a form of prayer, an inspire... [ Continue Reading ]
_CHRISTIAN SACRIFICES_ ‘So will we render the calves of our lips.’ Hosea 14:2 There is but One Priest Who in His own right can approach God; but One Mediator, Who can plead His own goodness; and so there is but One propitiatory, expiatory sacrifice, even ‘the One full, perfect, and sufficient Sac... [ Continue Reading ]
_THE ORPHAN’S GOD_ ‘The fatherless findeth mercy.’ Hosea 14:3 This description of the pity and benignity of God is literally true. And the literal truth is suggestive of a wider sense in which the words may be employed, and a glorious principle of the Divine government precious to God’s people in... [ Continue Reading ]
_BACKSLIDING AND ITS CURE_ ‘I will heal their backsliding.’ Hosea 14:4 In the English Bible the word ‘backsliding’ is found fifteen times, and represents in English several words in the original, even in the same writer. Backsliding means a wearying of God’s yoke, an attempt to get free from it w... [ Continue Reading ]
_‘I WILL BE AS THE DEW UNTO ISRAEL’_ ‘I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon. His branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive tree, and his smell as Lebanon. They that dwell under his shadow shall return.’ Hosea 14:5 Observ... [ Continue Reading ]
_EPHRAIM FORSAKING IDOLS_ ‘Ephraim shall say, What have I to do any more with idols? I have beard him, and observed him: I am like a green fir tree. From Me is thy fruit found.’ Hosea 14:8 These are the last words of Hosea’s prophecy. They sum up his whole hopes for his people. They are somewhat... [ Continue Reading ]
_THE WAYS OF GOD JUSTIFIED_ ‘Who is wise, and he shall understand these things? prudent, and be shall know them? for the ways of the Lord are right, and the just shall walk in them: but the transgressors shall fall therein.’ Hosea 14:9 The prophet viewed with dismay the heavy visitation of his co... [ Continue Reading ]
_THE MORAL OF HOSEA’S PROPHECIES_ ‘These things.’ Hosea 14:9 Hosea was a good man in a bad time. He let his light shine, and it shone the brighter because of the darkness. He walked straight in crooked surroundings. He dared to be right when all the world was wrong. The voice of the people did no... [ Continue Reading ]