Hosea 9:12-17

The wicked shall not go unpunished.

If they escape one calamity, they are sure to be overtaken and overwhelmed by another.

I. CALAMITY OF TWOFOLD KIND THREATENED . There is:

1. Bereavement , and that of a most painful nature. To be childless altogether, or to lose children in infancy, is sorrowful enough; but to be bereft of children when they have grown up to manhood or womanhood is an unspeakably greater sorrow. After labor, and trouble, and care, and thought have been expended in their upbringing; after all difficulties have been surmounted; and when sons have become like plants grown up in their youth, and daughters like corner-stones polished after the similitude of a palace; when the conduct of both is characterized by dutifulness, love, and obedience; and when parents naturally expect much help and comfort from them, and have their affections twined round them—at such a time, to be deprived of them either by a sudden stroke, or by slow disease, is a condition more than ordinarily sorrowful. It is only the grace of God in large measure that can sustain and support parents so afflicted; while the exercise of grace on their part has no doubt compensatory blessings. The bereavement of Israel was to be complete-without a man left. If left, they might be left without the intellect of a man, or the physical strength of a man; they might be imbeciles or invalids, and thus in a worse condition than if not left at all.

2. But a still worse woe impends, namely, that of Divine desertion . This is God's withdrawal from a people or a person. When he thus withdraws, he withdraws his goodness and mercy, common graces, gifts, and comforts. When this withdrawal takes place we are utterly helpless; as the king of Israel said to the poor woman who cried for help, "If the Lord do not help thee, whence shall I help thee?" or as the apparition of Samuel to Saul, "Wherefore then dost thou ask of me, seeing the Lord is departed from thee?" We may pass through fiery trials, or be plunged in the deep waters of affliction; but if we enjoy the Divine presence we need not be afraid. As long as the Lord of hosts is with us, and the God of Jacob is our Refuge, we need not fear the raging of the great sea-billows, or the upheaval of the mountains, or even the shock of the earthquake. The sorest of all troubles is to be forsaken by God. Oh, how sad the lot of a man who, forsaken by God, is left in the power of his enemies! "I am sore distressed," said the unhappy monarch; "for the Philistines make war against me, and God is departed from me."

II. A COMPARISON INSTITUTED . Ephraim is compared to Tyre in prosperity, in position, in population, and in military prowess; and yet God was preparing to take his departure from them.

1. His presence maintains health, strength, and various other comforts; or if, in his wise providence, he sees fit to withdraw any of these, he sanctifies that withdrawal. But when God himself withdraws, then his mercies prepare for flight too; nor is any blessing left behind. Not only so; even when men are at the height of prosperity, as they think, God may be on the point of departing from them, as from Israel in the days of Jeroboam II ; if we are right in referring this comparison of the prophet to that period.

2. How we should prize God's presence and pray for its continuance, saying, "Leave us not," and avoid whatever would force or hasten his departure! But how may we be sure that he has not already forsaken us? The answer may be learned from the words of the psalmist: "I will keep thy statutes: oh, forsake me not utterly." As long as we are resolved to keep his statutes, we may have little fellowship with, but cannot be forsaken by, God.

3. How dreadful the doom of those from whom God has actually and already departed! It is like the withdrawal of the sun from the firmament. "Take a delightful summer's day, and how beautiful it is! Now compare that with a winter's dark, dismal night. What makes the difference between these two? The presence of the sun in the one, and its absence from the other. This is but the presence or the departing of one of God's creatures. Oh l if that makes such a difference in the world, what must the presence or departing of the infinite God do to the soul?" In the case of Ephraim, their children are brought forth to the murderers—not only murdered, but that murder perpetrated before the eyes of their parents. This seems the severest stroke of all. Even a heathen poet has most pathetically portrayed the extreme sadness of this condition in the death of Polites, a son of Priam, who addresses his murderer Pyrrhus in the well-known words: "May the gods, if there be any kind power in heaven to watch such deeds, yield you your due reward, who have defiled the father's eyes by the sight of his son's murder."

III. COMMISERATION EXPRESSED . The prophet prays for his people, but seems straitened in his petitions, or rather he is at a loss to know what was most expedient for them and conducive to the Divine glory. He does not pray for peace, nor for deliverance, nor for prosperity. He dared not venture. He knew too well the sins of his countrymen, their abuse of the Divine mercies, their contempt of warning, their hardness of heart, their searedness of conscience, and their gross misuse of all means used for their recovery. No wonder he pauses and hesitates. He cannot pray for a numerous progeny to be vouchsafed to his people, or for children at all Better they should never come into the world at all than to be made the prey of the spoiler; better not to be born than to become victims of the murderer; better perish before birth or from the birth than live a life of sin and misery, and die a death of violence and hopelessness! At length, in view of the sinfulness of the people, the misery of times not far distant, and the fast-approaching calamities, he prays either that children might not be born at all, or that they might not be sustained so as long to survive their birth.

IV. CRIMINALITY EXPOSED . We are here reminded of the plan of Israel's criminal conduct, of the punishment of it, and of the princes who were ringleaders in it.

1. The place of their chief and greatest crimes was Gilgal. What a contrast[ The place that testified to God's greatest mercies also witnessed Israel's greatest wickedness. In Gilgal the memorial stones were set up after the passage of the Jordan; in Gilgal the first Passover was celebrated after the Exodus; in Gilgal the rite of circumcision was renewed and the reproach of Egypt rolled away; in Gilgal Israel first ate the fruits of the promised land. Yet all their wickedness, their chief wickedness, was wrought there. There they threw off the government of God by judges, and would have Saul to be their king; there, in their superstition, they worshipped God instead of at Jerusalem, and thus trampled underfoot the Divine appointment. The more God signalizes a person or place by his mercies, the more severe his judgments on the wickedness of such. Every time God's eye rested on Gilgal, a feeling of hatred was roused against the works and workers of iniquity there.

2. The punishment of their wickedness was expulsion. "Some sins," as has been said, "provoke God to anger, and some to grief, but some to hatred." 'There I hated them.' It is dreadful when our sins provoke hatred. This is the great difference between the sins of the saints and others. The sins of the saints may anger God, may grieve God, but the sins of others provoke God to hatred." That hatred manifests itself in their expulsion. They are driven out of God's house, and so nationally unchurched—as a disobedient and unruly child is driven out of his father's house, or as a rebellious and unruly servant is turned out of the house of his master; while son and servant receive no more tokens of favor or good will.

3. Their princes , one and all, set the bad example of rebellion and revolt. As "like priest, like people," so like prince, like people. Persons in high places have it in their power to do much good or work much evil by their influence and example; for such they are responsible, and shall one day be called to account. Of every talent given us, whether health, or wealth, or influence, or opportunities of doing or getting good, we must all one day give an exact account.

V. CONSUMPTION COMPLETED . A tree may lose its leaves, but a following spring will restore them; it may lose some of its branches in the process of pruning, but this will not prevent it growing again. Yea, "there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease. Though the root thereof wax old in the earth, and the stock thereof die in the ground; yet through the scent of water it will bud, and bring forth boughs like a plant." So long as the root retains life, there is hope of the tree; but once the root is dried up and dead, ruin is inevitable. Thus Ephraim was smitten; thus many are smitten in just judgment from the Almighty. When the root is thus dried up, there can be no hope of fruit. If men will bear fruit to the world, or sin, or self, and not unto God, it is only just they should be left fruitless. If men will not bring up their children for God, training them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, is it strange they should be left childless?

VI. CASTAWAYS AMONG THE NATIONS . This is the condition in which Israel remains till the present day. They cast away the truth of God, and now they are cast away. They rejected the Son; for he came to his own realms, and his subjects received him not; now they are outcast. Note the cause: "Because they did not hearken unto him." This was regarded by Luther as a notable statement, and worthy to be written on all our walls. Bow often we find men hearkening to the counsels of the wicked, or to the suggestions of worldly policy, or to the temptations of the evil one, or to their own lusts and passions, but not to God! Let men beware of refusing to give audience to God. Let them beware of acting as if they did not hear with the ear, nor understand with the heart. Every Jew one meets is a warning of the danger of not hearkening to God. While every Jew is a living monument to the truth of Scripture, he is at the same time a proof of the calamity incurred by not hearkening to God. It is here predicted that they should be wanderers among the nations. The fulfillment of the prediction may be expressed in the sadly truthful words of the Hebrew melody—

"Tribes of the wandering foot and weary breast,

How shall ye flee away and be at rest!

The wild dove hath her nest, the fox his cave,

Mankind their country; Israel but the grave!"

HOMILIES BY C. JERDAN