Hosea 14:1-5

According to the heading of this chapter, we have here «an exhortation to repentance,» and «a promise of God's blessing.»

Hosea 14:1. O Israel, return unto the LORD thy God; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity.

Fallen into sorrow, fallen into shame, fallen into spiritual poverty, fallen into weakness of faith, fallen almost to destruction, though thou art Israel, and God loves thee, yet «thou hast fallen by thine iniquity;» and the only possible way in which thou canst obtain restoration, is to «return unto the Lord thy God.» Seek once again thy Father's face; cry, with the prodigal «I will arise, and go to my Father.» «O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God.» Thou mayest do so, for he bids thee come back to him. Thou should do so, for it was ill of thee to wander from him; so end thy wandering, and return unto him. «Return unto the Lord thy God.» He is «thy God» still. He denies not the sacred band which binds thee to himself. Though thou hast forsaken him, yet still he bids thee think of him, not as a stranger, but as thy God. O child of God, are you just now very heavy in heart because of your backsliding? Is the lamp of spirituality burning very low? Do you feel as if you had got into a state of spiritual barrenness? Then return return at once unto the Lord your God, for your sad condition is due to your iniquity.

Hosea 14:2. Take with you words, and turn to the LORD: say unto him,

He puts the words into our mouths; for he knows that, sometimes, we feel as if we cannot give proper expression to our repentance. We feel it, but we cannot utter it; so he puts the very form of the confession into his children's mouths: «Take with you words, and turn to the Lord: say unto him,»

Hosea 14:2. Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously: so will we render the calves of our lips.

Sin has had the mastery over you; therefore, ask to have it taken away by pardon, and by the cleansing which shall deliver you from the influence and power of it! Do not ask the Lord merely to take away some of your sin, but say to him, «Take away all iniquity. Especially, if I have indulged some darling sin that has been my ruin, take that away.» «Take away all iniquity, and receive us.» «Thou canst not receive us with our sins ‘upon us. Wilt thou press us to thy bosom while we are black and foul with iniquity? No, that cannot be; so, first take away all our sin, and then receive us. Receive us again into favour with thee, into a conscious sense of thy love. Receive us when we come to thee in prayer. Receive us when we come to the communion table. Receive us as thou didst at the first, as thy sons and daughters.» «Receive us graciously.» «We cannot hope to be received on any other footing but that of thy free and abounding grace; for even if thou dost forgive and cleanse us, we shall be sinners still, and shall still need thy grace and mercy.» «Receive us graciously; so will we render.» «When thou hast put away our sin, and received us, then we will begin to serve thee; and we will bring to thee, not the calves of the legal sacrifice; for a sense of thy love will make us feel that thou delightest not in burnt offering; but we will render unto thee the calves of our lips, our testimony to thy faithfulness, our declaration of thy truth, our prayer, our praise.»

Hosea 14:3. Asshur shall not save us;-

When a man trusts to his God, he gets away from all other trust. Confidence in God is the death of all other confidences: «Asshur shall not save

Hosea 14:3. We will not ride upon horses:

Which, somehow or other, were always the Israelites' fear and trust. They always looked upon horsemen as the most powerful friends or foes in the day of battle; but now they feel that all creatures shall be given up, and they will cling to God alone: «Asshur shall not save us; we will not ride upon horses.»

Hosea 14:3. Neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, Ye are our gods: for in thee the fatherless findeth mercy.

What a sweet reason this is for confidence in God, namely, that he cares for those who have nobody else to care for them, that he becomes the Helper of those who have no other helper, and the Guardian of those who are left friendless in the world! O my soul, art thou not just such an one, friendless, helpless, hopeless, orphaned? Fly, then, to that God in whom the fatherless findeth mercy, and thou, too, shalt find mercy. Now let us listen to the voice of God:

Hosea 14:4. I will heal their backsliding,

He can do it; he will do it, he evidently rejoices to do it. He soliloquizes with himself, as though it were a very pleasant thought to him: «I will heal their backsliding,»

Hosea 14:4. I will love them freely:

«Though there is nothing lovely in them, though they deserve my wrath, though, according to their own confession, they have gone after false gods, I will love them freely.»

Hosea 14:4. For mine anger is turned away from him.

«I have fully forgiven them, and I have caused my great wrath to pass away from them.» Now, dear child of God, you to whom I spoke just now, who have fallen into a dull, dead, dreary sort of state, are you not encouraged to return unto the Lord when he thus declares that he will heal your backsliding, and love you freely? You shall have your joy-days back again; you shall have your old love restored; you shall have your old delight renewed; you shall again dance before the Lord for very joy of spirit.

Hosea 14:5. I will be as the dew unto Israel:

«When they come back to me, I will refresh them, softly, sweetly, efficaciously, abundantly, mysteriously, even as the dew refreshes the thirsty earth.»

Hosea 14:5. He shall grow as the lily,-

Your souls shall suddenly spring up. As the daffodil-lily springs up almost in a night, and its golden bells speedily appear, so you, who seem so dead, shall grow up adorned with the golden flowers of God's delight in you.

Hosea 14:5. And cast forth his roots as Lebanon.

Fickle as you have been, God's grace will make you stable. You shall have as firm a roothold as a cedar has, and be as fixed as Libanus himself.

Hosea 14:6. His branches shall spread,

You shall begin to have influence upon others, and cast a shadow over them for their good.

Hosea 14:6. And his beauty shall be as the olive tree,

His soul, bedewed by grace divine, shall be beautiful as the olive tree, which has an almost indescribable loveliness all its own.

Hosea 14:6. And his smell as Lebanon.

There shall be a gracious flavour about you, who are now so sapless and dry, when once the Lord returneth to you because you have returned to him.

Hosea 14:7. They that dwell under his shadow shall return;-

Your children, your friends, all those who live in your house, shall be the better for your repentance and return to God. They try you now, but when you have left off trying God, they will leave off trying you. Among a man's own children, there are often those who remind him of his own sin against God. Do you wonder that Jacob had so much trial with his sons when you remember what kind of man he was? Are you surprised that David's latter days were so full of trouble when you recollect his great sin? Ah! But if the Lord restores, and revives, and refreshes you, your household also shall be blessed: «They that dwell under his shadow shall return;»

Hosea 14:7. They shall revive as the corn, and grow as the vine: the scent thereof shall be as the wine of Lebanon.

Your household shall have such a blessedness about them that observers shall say of you and yours, «They are a seed that the Lord hath blest.» The Lord has a most gracious way of making families to be very choice and select, and full of comfort and peace, when those families walk in his fear; but when there is sin in the head of the household, there comes disorder in the family, the departure of the divine blessing, and all goes awry.

Hosea 14:8. Ephraim shall say, What have I to do any more with idols?

«I have had enough of them. They have cost me sorrow enough; they have plagued me enough. I will put them away, for I must have my God, and I cannot have him and idols too.»

Hosea 14:8. I have heard him and observed him:

God hears the cry of the penitent, and observes what is going on in his heart.

Hosea 14:8. I am like a green fir tree. From me is thy fruit found. Who is wise, and he shall understand these things? prudent, and he shall know them? for the ways of the Lord are right, and the just shall walk in them: but the transgressors shall fall therein.

The Lord give us wisdom, by his Holy Spirit, to understand and know these things, and to put our understanding to practical account by returning unto him, for Jesus Christ's sake! Amen.