ホセア書 14:1-7 Jcb

THE Lord loves His people naturally, as parents love their children; freely, without any cause whatever in them. He looks for nothing in them to move Him to love; nor will He allow any thing in them to prevent His love. He loves them as vessels of mercy, disciples of Jesus, as bearing His image, His name, and His nature. His love to them is infinite, fruitful, and unchangeable. He will love them, though they deserve hatred, merit wrath, and may be justly sentence to perdition. Beloved, let...

Our hearts by nature are like the dry, dead, and barren earth; there would be neither life, beauty, nor fruit, but for the grace of God. And even after regeneration, we are as much dependant upon God, as the earth in the east is dependant upon the dew.

If there be no dew, there will be no fruit, and if there be no grace, there will be no real religion. But our God has said, "I will be as the dew unto Israel." What the dew is to the earth, God will be unto His people. Does the dew cool...

"In Thee the fatherless findeth mercy." Hosea 14:3

This is an excellent reason for casting away all other confidences and relying upon the LORD alone. When a child is left without its natural protector, our God steps in and becomes his guardian: so also when a man has lost every object of dependence, he may cast himself upon the living God and find in Him all that he needs. Orphans are cast upon the fatherhood of God, and He...

This sentence is a body of divinity in miniature. He who understands its meaning is a theologian, and he who can dive into its fulness is a true master in Israel. It is a condensation of the glorious message of salvation which was delivered to us in Christ Jesus our Redeemer. The sense hinges upon the word "freely." This is the glorious, the suitable, the divine way by which love streams from heaven to earth, a spontaneous love flowing forth to those who neither deserved it, purchased it,...

God does this:

(l) By letting them taste some of the bitter fruits of their backsliding. Dreadful shadows gather round their path. Anguish invades their souls. They discover the frightful desolation of a path where God is not.

(2) He brings to their recollection the happy state from whence they fell; the blessedness of having the Good Shepherd to lead them, and to keep them.

(3) He directs them to the promises, and so to the open arms of Christ.

(4) He fills them...

I will be like the dew to Israel; he shall grow like the lily, and lengthen his roots like Lebanon. His branches shall spread; his beauty shall be like an olive tree, and his fragrance like Lebanon. §  Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, and whose hope is the Lord. For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, which spreads out its roots by the river, and will not fear when heat comes; but its leaf will be green, and will not be anxious in the year of drought, nor will cease from...

Your iniquities have separated you from your God; and your sins have hidden His face from you. § My beloved had turned away and was gone. I sought him, but I could not find him; I called him, but he gave me no answer. § I hid and was angry, and he went on backsliding in the way of his heart. I have seen his ways, and will heal him. § Have you not brought this on yourself, in that you have forsaken the Lord your God when He led you in the way?He arose and came to his father. But when...

Barak said to [Deborah], “If you will go with me, then I will go; but if you will not go with me, I will not go.” … On that day God subdued Jabin king of Canaan. § Gideon … feared his father’s household and the men of the city too much to do it by day, [so] he did it by night … So Gideon said to God, “If You will save Israel by my hand as You have said … Let me test, I pray.” … And God did so.You have a little strength, have kept My word, and have not denied My name. § Who has...

Mount Sion (that is, Hermon). § There the Lord commanded the blessing—life forevermore.I will be like the dew to Israel; He shall grow like the lily, and lengthen his roots like Lebanon.Let my teaching drop as the rain, my speech distill as the dew, as rain- drops on the tender herb, and as showers on the grass. § As the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and do not return there, but water the earth, and make it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower...