God Makes Men Sensible Of Their Misery Before He Reveals His Mercy And Love
Not dated. Three sermons.
Hosea 5:15
I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offense, and seek my face: in their affliction they will seek me early.
Subject: That 'tis God's manner to make men sensible of their misery and unworthiness, before he appears in his mercy and love to them.
IN the preceding part of the chapter is threatened the destruction of Ephraim. Ephraim, in the prophets, generally means the ten tribes, or the kingdom of Israel, as distinguished from the kingdom of Judah. When we read of Ephraim and Judah in the prophets, thereby is meant the whole people of Israel of the twelve tribes, as in verse 12 of this chapter, 'Therefore will I be unto Ephraim as a moth, and to the house of Judah as rottenness.' By Judah is meant the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, which were under the king of Judah, and by Ephraim is meant the ten tribes under the king of Israel. Ephraim is put for the whole kingdom of Israel, because Samaria, the seat of the kingdom, the royal city, was in that tribe. In the verse immediately preceding the text it is declared in what a terrible manner God was about to deal with Ephraim. (Hos. 5:14) 'For I will be unto Ephraim as a lion, and as a young lion to the house of Judah; I, even I, will tear and go away, and none shall rescue him.' In the text God declares how he would deal with them after he had torn as a lion, etc. And here,
First, God declares how he would withdraw from them. 'I will go and return to my place;' when I have torn as a lion. I will go away; I will leave them in that condition. I will depart from them, and they shall see no more of me.
Second, what God will wait for in them before he returns to them to show them mercy. There are three things here signified.
1. That they should be sensible of their guilt. 'Till they acknowledge their offense.' It is in the original, 'till they become guilty.' That is, till they become guilty in their own eyes, till they are sensible of their guilt; in the same sense as the same expression is used in Rom. 3:19, 'That every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God:' that is, become guilty in their own eyes.
2. That they would be sensible of their misery, implied in the expression, 'in their affliction they shall seek me.' Their calamity was brought upon them, before God had torn them, and left them. But in their pride and perverseness, they were not well sensible of their own miserable condition, as this prophet observes in Hos. 7:9.
3. That they should be sensible of their need of God's help, which is implied in their seeking God's face, and seeking him early, that is, with great care and earnestness. Before, they would not seek God. They were not sensible of their helplessness, as we learn in the verse but one preceding the text. 'When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah his wound, then went Ephraim to the Assyrian, and sent to king Jareb.' But as we are there told, he could not heal him, nor cure his wound. And notwithstanding all the help he could afford, God wounded him, tore him as a young lion, and as he declares, would leave him, and he should cease going to any other, and should be sensible that no other could heal, and accordingly come to him for healing.
Doctrine. That it is God's manner to make men sensible of their misery and unworthiness, before he appears in his mercy and love to them.
I. That it is ordinarily thus with respect to the bestowment of great and signal mercies.
