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TRHCK THROUGH THE BIBLE
Sy G. CAMPBELL MORGAN, Westminster Chapel, London, England.
Appearing Lbery Week During 1907. {Copyright American Serial 'Righto applied Tor by The Golden age Publishing Co. All Rights Reserbed.)
HOSEA—SPIRITUAL ADULTERY.
A « The Training of the Prophet. i. 2-iii. B. The Teaching of the Prophet. iv.-xiv.
I His domestic Life and national Conscience, i. 2-ii. 1 I. Pollution and its Cause. iv.-vi. 3
i. The Word of the Lord at first. i. 2 1. The General Charge. iv. 1-3
ii. The Marriage. 3 ii. The Cause declared and Results described.
iii. The Domestic Life and the national Conscience. iv. 449
i. 4-9 iii. Special Message to Priest, People and King. v.
iv. The Vision of Hope. I. 10-ii. 1 iv. The plaintive Plea of the Prophet. vi. 1-3
11. His Home Tragedy a Revelation. ii. 2-23 11. Pollution and its Punishment. vi. 4-x.
i. The Charge. Hosea and Jehovah. 2-5 i. The Case stated. vi. 4-vii. 16
ii. The Severity of Love. Jehovah only. 6-13 ii. The Judgment pronounced. viii., ix.
iii. The Tenderness of Love. Jehovah only. 14-23 iii. Recapitulation and Appeal. x.
111. His Dealing with Gomer. A Command and a 111. The Love of Jehovah. xi.-xiv.
Revelation. iii. i. The Message of Jehovah with prophetic interpo-
i. The Instruction of Jehovah. lations. xi.-xiii.
ii. Hosea’s Obedience. 2, 3 ii. The final Call of the Prophet, with the Prom-
iii. The national Interpretation. 4, 5 ise of Jehovah. xiv. 1-8
Epilogue. xiv. 9
THE PROPHECY OF HOSEA.
OSEA dated his prophesying by giving
the names of four kings of Judah and
one of Israel. This reveals a remarka
ble length of prophetic utterance. His
voice was heard in reigns which cov
ered no less a period than one hundred
and twenty-eight years. The probabil
ity is that he exercised his ministry be
tween sixty and seventy years. The pe-
H
riod covered was undoubtedly the darkest in the
whole history of the kingdom of Israel. Political
life was characterized by anarchy and misrule. The
throne was occupied by men who obtained pos
session by the murder of their predecessors, and
the people were governed by military despotism.
Foreign alliances involved the nation in’ inextrica
ble confusion. These alliances, moreover, resulted
in the introduction of the corrupting influences of
Syrian and Phoenician idolatry. The conditions
were terrible in the extreme; luxurious living, rob
bery, oppression, falsehood, adultery, murder, ac
companied by the most violent intolerance of any
form of rebuke.
In the first part of the book we have an account
of the preparation of Hosea for the delivery of
his messages, and in the second part a condensed
epitome of his prophetic utterances. The proph
ecy falls into two divisions: The Training of the
Prophet (i. —iii.): The Teaching of the Prophet
(iv. —xiv.).
A. THE TRAINING OF THE PROPHET.
In the account of the training of the prophet for
his work there are three distinctly marked move
ments —his domestic life and national conscience;
his home tragedy, a revelation; and his dealing
with Gomer, a command and a revelation.
The statement, “When the Lord spake at the
first,” is a declaration made by Hosea long after
the event. Looking back, he understood that the
impulse which resulted in heart agony was also
part of the divine method of teaching him. There
is no reason to believe that Gomer was outwardly
impure in *the days when Hosea married her. In
the picture of the domestic life which follows, the
supreme matter is its revelation of Hosea’s nation
al conscience. There were born to him three chil
dren, and in the naming of them he revealed his
conviction concerning the condition of his people.
While all this was a dark outlook, yet nevertheless
the section ends with words which show that the
prophet’s faith was unshaken in the final fulfilment
of the first Divine purposes, in spite of all contra
dictory appearances.
No details of the unfaithfulness of Gomer are
given; but in the second movement the prophet is
seen nursing his own agony, and by that process
learning the true nature of the sin of his people as
God. knew and felt. All that Hosea said concern
ing Gomer was also the language of Jehovah con
cerning Israel. As she had violated her covenant
The Golden Age for August 29, 1907.
with him, so had Israel with Jehovah. In the lat
ter part of the section the prophet speaks for Jeho
vah only, the tragedy in his own life being the
background of illustration. The Divine attitude
was that of the severity of love, which determined
upon stern measures in order ultimately to win
again the sinning and wandering people.
Hosea was taught the truth of the tenderness of
the Divine heart by the command of Jehovah to
love, and find, and restore his sinful and wander
ing bride. Through his obedience he entered into
fellowship with the amazing tenderness of God.
and was thereby prepared for the delivery of the
messages which followed.
The method of his training for work may thus be
summarized. Out of his communion -with God in
the days of prosperity he was able to see the true
condition of his people. He was conscious that on
account of their sin, the judgment of Jehovah
threatened them; that on account of their obsti
nacy, mercy was not obtained, and that the issue
of all could only be that they should be a people
cast out from their place, power, and privilege.
Out of his own heart agony he learned the true
nature of the sin of his people. They were play
ing the harlot, spending God’s gifts in lewd traffic
with other lovers.
Out of that personal suffering he had come to an
understanding of how God suffered over the sin of
His people, because of His undying love.
Out of God’s love, Hosea’s new care for Gomer
was born; and in the method God ordained for him
with her, he discovered God’s method with Israel.
Out of these processes of pain there came a full
confidence in the ultimate victory of love.
Thus equipped he delivered his messages, and
through them all there sounded these deepest notes
of sin, of love, of judgment.
B. THE TEACHING OF THE PROPHET.
In any attempt to analyze and tabulate the
teaching contained in this second division of the
book, it must be remembered that the prophetic ut
terances cannot be treated as verbatim reports. As
they here apear, they are rather the gathering up
of the notes or leading ideas of a long period of
preaching. In our analysis the method is that of
indicating, not the periods at which the messages
were delivered, but rather their subject matter.
They fall into three distinct cycles dealing with
pollution and its cause; pollution and its punish
ment; and the love of Jehovah.
In dealing with pollution and its cause the
prophet first preferred a general charge against the
nation. Israel was summoned to attend and hear
the word of the Lord because lie had a controver
sy with the inhabitants of the land. The charge
made was that of the absence of truth and mercy
and knowledge of God, and the consequent wide
spread existence of all kinds of evil. The result
was to be seen in the mourning land, the languish
ing people, and the fact that man’s dominion over
nature was lost. .
The prophet next declared the cause of the sin
and more carefully described the results. The cause
was that of the pollution of the priests. Priest and
prophet stumbled, and the people were destroyed
for lack of knowledge. As the priests multiplied
they sinned, and their glory was changed to shame.
The result was the pollution of the people. Fol
lowing the example of the priests, had issued in
lack of understanding. The prophet declared that
God would not punish for the smaller offense of
physical harlotry, but for the more terrible outrage
of spiritual adultery which lay behind it. In this
connection he counselled Judah to take warning by
the terrible example of Israel. Having thus de
clared the cause of pollution, the prophet's next
message was specially addressed to priest, people,
and king. First to the priests and the king as lead
ers and responsible, though the people were includ
ed as having followed the false lead. The mes
sage affirmed the Divine knowledge of the condi
tion of affairs, and announced the inevitable judg
ment which must follow. A threefold method of
judgment was indicated. First that of tiie moth
and rottenness, which is slow destruction; second
ly, that of the young lion, which is strong devour
ing judgment; and, finally, that of withdrawal,
which is the most terrible of all. The section closes
with the plaintive plea of the prophet which con
stituted his appeal In consequence of the judgment
threatened. In its local application it was a call
to return to Jehovah, based upon the certainty of
the Divine pity, and a declaration of the equal cer
tainty of prosperity if there were such a return io
Him. The appeal is full of beauty and has in i*
Messianic values, for all that the prophet declared
only finds its fulfilment in the Christ, byway of
His first and second advents.
Passing to pollution and its punishment, the
prophetic word first stated the case as it existed
between Jehovah and His people. The Divine atti
tude toward the people was affirmed to be that of
perplexity. In the presence of the shallowness of
their goodness, Jehovah had adopted different meth
ods in His desire foi- their welfare. The human re
sponse had been that of persistent transgression
and treachery, the proofs of which were to be found
in Gilead and Schechem. The true state of affairs
was that of the Divine desire to heal, frustrated by
the discovery cf pollution, and by their persistent
ignoring of God. The pollution of the nation was
manifest in the king, the princes, and the judges.
The prophet described Ephraim as mixing among
the people, with reference to the widespread influ
ence of that tribe; as a cake not turned, indicating
utter failure, being undeveloped on one side, and
on the other destroyed by burning; as a silly dove,
indicating fear and cowardice. The statement of
the case was concluded by a declaration of the ut
ter folly of the people whom God was scourging to
ward redemption. They responded by howling, as
sembling and rebelling.
From this statement of the case the prophet
turned to the pronouncement of judgment. This he
did first by the figure of the trumpet lifted to the
mouth, uttering five blasts, in each of which the sin
of the people was set forth as revealing the reason
of judgment. The first blast declared the coming
of judgment under the figure of an eagle, because
of transgression and trespass. The second empha
sized Israel’s sin of rebellion, in that they had set
up kings and princes without the authority of Je
hovah. The third dealt with Israel’s idolatry, an
nouncing that Jehovah had cast off the calf of Sa
maria. The fourth denounced Israel’s alliances,
and declared that her hire among the nations had
issued in her diminishing. The fifth drew atten
tion to the altars of sin, and announced the coming
judgment.
The judgment is then described in detail Its
first note was that of the death of joy. Israel could
not find her joy like other peoples. Having known
Jehovah, all to which she turned in turning from
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