Hosea 1:4

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.

Ver. 4. Call his name Jezreel] For the honourable name of Israel is too good for this people; call them therefore Jezreel, a people devoted to dispersion, and such as I will scatter into the four winds of heaven, as the seedsman scattereth his seed (זרע spargere to scatter). Thus Jeconiah is called Coniah (for a judgment upon him): Bethel, Bethaven; Har, Hammischa, the mount Olivet, or of unction, Har Hammaschith, the mount of corruption, 2 Kings 23:13. And this is not unusual among men; so when they would disgrace a man, to clip or play upon his name: as when they spitefully called Athanasius, Sathanasius; Cyprian, Coprian (as if all his excellent works were but dung); Calvin, Cain, &c. This people, saith God here, are more like Ahab than Jacob. Call them therefore Jezreel (Ahab's court), that is, a den of thieves and murderers, where innocent Naboth cannot be master of the vineyard that he was born to. Micah (who prophesied also much about these times) hath a saying much to the same purpose, Micah 2:7 : "O thou that art named the house of Jacob, is the spirit of the Lord straitened? are these his doings?" q.d. Ye that boast of Jacob to be your father, do you tread in his steps? are ye of his spirit, of his practice? was there such vile profaneness found in him as is openly found in you? David describeth the generation of such as "seek God, as seek his face," and then subjoineth, "this is Jacob," these are Israelites indeed, these are Jews inwardly, Psalms 24:6 : and all others are degenerate plants, and are the worse for their outward privileges: since "tribulation and anguish shall be upon every soul of man that doeth evil, but of the Jew first, and then also of the Gentile," Romans 2:9 .

For yet a little while] And yet this little was a long while, through God's gracious forbearance. As bad as this people were, they should not perish without warning; yea, though the Lord foreknew they would make no good use of it. Fιλει ο Yεος προσημαινειν, saith the heathen historian Herodotus: God loves to forewarn, and premonish. But there is nothing more dangerous and dismal than these still revenges; as when God suddenly brake out in wrath upon Nadab and Abihu, upon Nebuchadnezzar, Herod, Pharaoh at the Red Sea, when he would not beware. It is a just both desert and presage of ruin, not to be warned. See this in Nineveh, spared at first, but after a little while revolting, soundly paid for the new and old faults, Nahum 3:19. Non consurget iterum afflictio, saith the same prophet. Nah 1:9 Affliction shall not rise up the second time: God will not make two doings of it: but when he begins, he will also make an end, 1 Samuel 3:12, that is, as sure as he begins, so sure will he make an end: and though it may be some time ere he begin, yet a little while (for he is slow to wrath and of great kindness), yet assuredly he will "avenge the blood of Jezreel," i.e. the executions done by Jehu upon the house of Ahab, as so many murders: see 1 Kings 16:7 2Ki 9:24; 2 Kings 9:31; 2 Kings 10:11; 2Ki 10:17 This God did not presently, but that is nothing. Nullum tempus occurrit Regi, nedum Deo. He is slow, but sure, Et tarditatem supplicii gravitate compensat, as the heathen (Val. Max.) could say, the longer he holds, the harder he strikes: and visits Jehu's house for past sins, that they made little reckoning of. Sin may sleep a long time, like a sleeping debt, not called for of many years: as Saul's sin in slaying the Gibeonites, not punished till forty years later: as Joab s killing of Abner slept all David's days: as Amalec perished, for their ill usage of Israel, many hundred years after. It is ill angering the Ancient of Days. He that saith. "Vengeance is mine, I will repay it," takes his own time for the doing of it: and who shall prescribe to him? It is dangerous offending him whose displeasure is everlasting. Vapours, that ascend invisibly, come down again in storms and showers. A sinner of a hundred years shall be accursed, and made to possess the sins of his youth. It is not the last sand that exhausts the hour glass, nor the last stroke that fells the oak. Jehu's house is visited, and his progeny extinguished in the fourth generation, for Jehu's offences. God's work must be done truly, that there be no halting, and totally, that there be do halving. But Jehu, as he had not that true heart spoken of by the apostle, Hebrews 10:22, but was double minded, James 1:8; James 4:8 (like that mad Neapolitan that said he had two hearts, one for God, and another for him that would); so he fulfilled not after God, or he followed not God fully, as Caleb did, Numbers 14:24; he did not all God's will, as David, Acts 13:22; he served him not with a perfect heart, as Asa, 2 Chronicles 15:17. He reformed the State, but not the Church; or if he did something toward it, yet he was not thorough in it. He had a dispensatory conscience: for though he rooted out Baal's worship, yet the golden calves must continue; piety must give place to policy. It was a just complaint of Chemnitius, Principes regionem potius quam religionem quaerunt: pauperes panem potius quam Christum. All men seek their own, but not the things of Jesus Christ, Philippians 2:21. And yet piety hath ever proved to be the best policy: and the very philosopher in his Politics gives this golden rule: πρωτον περι θειων επιμελει, (Arist. Pol. l. 7. c. 8.), first take care of divine things. Jehu seemed at first to be as zealous a reformer as Jehoshaphat: but though his fleece was fair, his liver was rotten. In parabola ovis capras suas quaerebat; he was like the eagle which soareth aloft, not for any love of heaven: her eye is, all the while, upon the prey; which by this means she spies sooner, and seizeth upon better. He seems to have been of Machiavel's mind, viz. that virtue itself should not be sought after, but only the appearance: because the credit is a help, the use a cumber. Finally, of Jehu it may be said, as Marcellinus saith of Julian, that by his hypocrisy and double dealing, Obnubilabat gloriae multiplices cursus, he stained his many praise worthy practices. Or as Camden saith of King Henry VIII, Fuerunt quidem in eo rege, confuso quodam temperamento mixta. There were in that king great virtues, and no less vices mingled, or rather jumbled together. Or lastly, as Fellers Galeazo reporteth of Sforza, Duke of Milan, that he was a very monster, made up and compact of virtue and vice. See more Hosea 1:5 .

And I will cause to cease the kingdom] This happened after 76 years, which God counts and calls here but a little while. A thousand years with him are but as one day. What is our life but a spot of time between two eternities? "It is even a vapour," saith St James, Jam 4:14 "that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away." "Let us therefore fear, lest a promise being left us (and a door now opened) of entering into God's rest, any of us should seem to come short," or to come lag, and late, Hebrews 4:1, as did Esau, the foolish virgins, those that come a day after the fair, an hour after the feast. Agree with your adversary quickly, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel, Currat paenitentia, ne praecurrat sententia: Repent a day before death (and that may be this day before the next), make God's judgments present in conceit, ere they come in the event; prevision is the likeliest way of prevention, the surest means of mitigation: whereas coming on the sudden, they find weak minds secure, make them miserable, leave them desperate.