#1132 Hosea 14 What Have I To Do With These

 

O Israel, return to the Lord your God,

For you have stumbled because of your iniquity;

2 Take words with you,

And return to the Lord.

Say to Him,

“Take away all iniquity;

Receive us graciously,

For we will offer the sacrifices of our lips.

3 Assyria shall not save us,

We will not ride on horses,

Nor will we say anymore to the work of our hands, ‘You are our gods.’

For in You the fatherless finds mercy.”

4 “I will heal their backsliding,

I will love them freely,

For My anger has turned away from him.

5 I will be like the dew to Israel;

He shall grow like the lily,

And lengthen his roots like Lebanon.

6 His branches shall spread;

His beauty shall be like an olive tree,

And his fragrance like Lebanon.

7 Those who dwell under his shadow shall return;

They shall be revived like grain,

And grow like a vine.

Their scent shall be like the wine of Lebanon.

8 “Ephraim shall say, ‘What have I to do anymore with idols?’

I have heard and observed him.

I am like a green cypress tree;

Your fruit is found in Me.”

9 Who is wise?

Let him understand these things.

Who is prudent?

Let him know them.

For the ways of the Lord are right;

The righteous walk in them,

But transgressors stumble in them. Hosea 14 NKJV

Hosea 14 Israel Restored At Last

They do not say what good they seek, but refer it to God. It is not good of the world's showing, but good of God's giving. They were to consider their sins, their wants, and the remedy; and they were to take, not sacrifices, but words stating the desires of their hearts, and with them to address the Lord. The whole forms a clear description of the nature and tendency of a sinner's conversion to God through Jesus Christ. As we draw near to God by the prayer of faith, we should first beseech him to teach us what to ask. We must be earnest with him to take away all iniquity. - Matthew Henry

1-3 Return to the Lord your God - God is light and in Him is no darkness, He is holy, and that means otherly, not worldly or earthly like us, and He is without sin, pure and undefiled. They went about after their iniquity, chasing sin took them further from the One Who was eternally opposed to it.

…22And this righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no distinction, 23for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24and are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.… Romans 3: 22-24

Take words with you - Come with corrected speech, asking of the Lord what no man can do for you. They had gone to Egypt, gone to Assyria, but they neglected the Lord. This is not the words of vain professors that he bids them to bring, but those that come out of the abundance of a new heart. Come with right doctrine, come wanting to know Him for Who He is, come desiring for all your iniquities to be taken away, to be cleansed. It is not a call to memorize sayings, to offer up empty speech, to treat the word of God as a book of incantations, don't approach God like that. Too often we are guilty of treating God like we would be enraged by others for treating us the same. Drop a coin in the plate, say a hail Mary or some other abominable thing, no, let it be of the changed heart and of the right mind.

…7You hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied correctly about you: 8‘These people honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me. 9They worship Me in vain; they teach as doctrine the precepts of men.’ ”… Matthew 15: 7-9

For in You the fatherless finds mercy - This is the cry for adoption, that we are orphans, lost, separated from God by sin, but He is merciful.

…17For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, mighty, and awesome God, showing no partiality and accepting no bribe. 18He executes justice for the fatherless and widow, and He loves the foreigner, giving him food and clothing. 19So you also must love the foreigner, since you yourselves were foreigners in the land of Egypt.… Deuteronomy 10: 17-19

…4For He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless in His presence. In love 5He predestined us for adoption as His sons through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of His will, 6to the praise of His glorious grace, which He has freely given us in the Beloved One.… Ephesians 1: 4-6

4-7 I will heal their backsliding - He sanctifies us, through His Spirit He convicts us with His law, and we come to the knowledge of our deep and pressing need. We struggle but no longer in vain, we no longer wish to please the eyes of men, but those of God, Who looks into the heart of every man, and  from Whom nothing is hid. Though we wrestle with temptation we never lose hope, that the same God, Who we believe by faith has justified, will also cleanse and conform us to the image of His Son.

…26I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 27And I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes and to carefully observe My ordinances. 28Then you will live in the land that I gave your forefathers; you will be My people, and I will be your God.… Ezekiel 36: 26-28

…8If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10If we say we have not sinned, we make Him out to be a liar, and His word is not in us.… 1 John 1: 8-10

…8For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not from yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9not by works, so that no one can boast. 10For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance as our way of life.… Ephesians 2: 8-10

He shall grow like the Lily - Israel will come with such words as fitting a repentant heart, "He was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities", they will one day remember Him Whom they pierced and mourn for Him. He will forgive and cause Israel to flower once again, He is faithful to His covenant.

Verse Hosea 14:5. I will be as the dew unto Israel — On these metaphors I gladly avail myself of the elegant and just observations of Bp. Lowth. "These verses (Hosea 14:5-7) contain gracious promises of God's favour and blessings upon Israel's conversion. In the fifth verse, it is described by that refreshment which copious dews give to the grass in summer. If we consider the nature of the climate, and the necessity of dews in so hot a country, not only to refresh, but likewise to preserve life; if we consider also the beauty of the oriental lilies, the fragrance of the cedars which grow upon Lebanon, the beauteous appearance which the spreading olive trees afforded, the exhilarating coolness caused by the shade of such trees, and the aromatic smell exhaled by the cedars; we shall then partly understand the force of the metaphors here employed by the prophet; but their full energy no one can conceive, till he feels both the want, and enjoys the advantage, of the particulars referred to in that climate where the prophet wrote." - Lowth's twelfth and nineteenth prelection; and Dodd on the place. - Adam Clarke's Commentary

25I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you will not be conceited: A hardening in part has come to Israel, until the full number of the Gentiles has come in. 26And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: “The Deliverer will come from Zion; He will remove godlessness from Jacob. 27And this is My covenant with them when I take away their sins.”… Romans 11: 25-27

Those that dwell under his shadow - Israel's shadow, this is the nation through which God revealed His redemptive plan, the people Who represent the covenant made with Abraham. We know from a careful study of scripture that not all who call themselves Israel are, and that it is the inner circumcision of the heart that God looks for, yet He has kept a remnant of this people. One day this nation will have the city set high on a hill, will be the recognizable shade of those who come under God's revelation of Himself, and the redemption provided through His Son, Who was the seed promised in the garden. In Isaac shall thy seed be called, and one day that final remnant will confess Jesus as Lord to the glory of God the Father.

1This is the message that was revealed to Isaiah son of Amoz concerning Judah and Jerusalem: 2In the last days the mountain of the house of the LORD will be established as the chief of the mountains; it will be raised above the hills, and all nations will stream to it. 3And many peoples will come and say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us His ways so that we may walk in His paths.” For the law will go forth from Zion, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.… Isaiah 2: 1-3

8-9 What have I to do anymore with idols - There is nothing back there for me, I know it a farce now, and so I look for My Master's feet, how did He walk, which way did He go, there is no other way worth knowing?

The righteous walk in them - Bring forth fruit worthy of repentance, now I beg and plead, let that be found in me, let me walk in Your light, and bring forth that which is pleasing to You.

Who profit by the truths the prophet delivered? Such as set themselves to understand and know these things. The ways of God's providence towards us are right; all is well done. Christ is a Foundation Stone to some, to others a Stone of stumbling, and a Rock of offence. That which was ordained to life, becomes, through their abuse of it, death to them. The same sun softens wax and hardens clay. But those transgressors certainly have the most dangerous, fatal falls, who fall in the ways of God, who split on the Rock of Ages, and suck poison out of the Balm of Gilead. Let sinners in Zion fear this. May we learn to walk in the right ways of God, as his righteous servants, and may none of us be disobedient and unbelieving, and stumble at the word. - Matthew Henry