Hosea 7:1-7

Sins of court and country.

The reproofs contained in this chapter lay special emphasis upon the sins of the upper classes. But the prophet brands the whole nation also for its irreligion and immorality, and (in the second part of the chapter) for its political corruption.

I. THE EXPOSURE OF ISRAEL 'S SIN . The wickedness of the people is portrayed, both as regards principles and individual acts. It may be described as:

1. Gold-blooded in its principles . ( Hosea 7:1-3 ) These showed themselves in habits of:

2. Hot-blooded in its acts . ( Hosea 7:4-7 ) Here the people are com- pared three several times to a baker's "oven," the meaning being that in doing their deeds of guilt they were enthusiastic and passionate, They sinned hotly in the direction of:

II. WHAT LED TO THIS EXPOSURE .

1. The encircling presence of their sins . (Verse 2) The people sinned so deeply and so boldly that their enormities grew up around them like a rampart. Wherever they went their wickedness attended them, and became a swift witness against them. A man's iniquity wraps him round like a poisoned tunic. He is "holden with the cords of his sins" ( Proverbs 5:22 ); and it is his own hands, alas! that have forged and riveted his chains. Evil doings "beset" a man through the accusations of conscience, through the power of habit, through the action of natural law, and through the providence of God, which makes sure that his "sin will find him out."

2. God ' s remembrance of their sins . (Verse 2) The Lord must take notice of sin, for he must punish it. Although the sinful nation has forgotten this, the fact remains. "They are before my face;" i . e . ever present to me; I cannot avoid seeing them. "These words ["before me"] in the first commandment teach us that God, who seeth all things, taketh notice of, and is much displeased with, the sin of having any other god" (Westminster Assembly's Shorter Catechism).

3. God ' s efforts to cure them of their sins . (Verse 1) As the depth and seriousness of a wound are often not known until the surgeon probes it, and as the nature of a disease may not be fully understood for some time after the physician has begun to grapple with the case, so the depravity of Israel was adequately exposed only when God adopted strong measures in connection with it, by the chastisements of his providence, and the warning voices of his prophets. For the people refused to obey each summons to repentance; and, instead of placing confidence in Jehovah, "they called to Egypt, and went to Assyria" (verse 11). So the very means of grace which God used in order to save Israel, became the occasion of showing how far the nation had already wandered from him, and even of inducing them to wander still further. And thus is it still, when God deals with men by his Word and Spirit. "By the Law is the knowledge of sin" ( Romans 3:20 ). The primary work of the Holy Ghost is to "convince the world of sin" ( John 16:8 ). By his common grace he gives, even to the unconverted, a partial view of their own unworthiness. And, in the case of all who enter upon the Christian life, he uses the disclosure of sin to lead the penitent to renounce all self-righteousness, and to fall at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ for mercy.—C.J.