Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible
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Hosea
Book: Hosea
Chapter: 11
Overview:
God's regard for
Israel; their ingratitude.
(1-7) The Divine
Mercy yet in store.
(8-12)
1-7 When
Israel were weak and helpless as children, foolish and
froward as children, then
God loved them; he bore them as the
nurse does the sucking
Child, nourished them, and suffered their
manners. All who are grown up, ought often to reflect upon the
Goodness of God to them in their childhood. He took care of
them, took pains with them, not only as a
Father, or a tutor,
but as a mother, or nurse. When they were in the
Wilderness,
God
showed them the way in which they should go, and bore them up,
taking them
By the arms. He taught them the way of his
Commandments By the ceremonial
Law given
By Moses. He took them
By the arms, to guide them, that they might not stray, and to
Hold them up, that they might not stumble and fall.
God's
spiritual
Israel are all thus supported. It is
God's work to
draw
Poor souls to himself; and none can come to him except he
draw them. With
Bands of
Love; this
Word signifies stronger
cords than the former. He eased them of the burdens they had
long groaned under.
Israel is very ungrateful to
God.
God's
counsels would have saved them, but their own counsels ruined
them. They
Backslide; there is
No Hold of them,
No stedfastness
in them. They
Backslide from me, from
God, the chief good. They
are bent to
Backslide; they are ready to
Sin; they are forward
to close with every
Temptation. Their hearts are fully set in
them to do evil. Those only are truly happy, whom the
Lord
teaches
By his
Spirit, upholds
By his power, and causes to walk
in his ways.
By his
Grace he takes away the
Love and dominion of
Sin, and creates a desire for the blessed
Feast of the
Gospel,
that they may feed thereon, and live for ever.
8-12 God is slow to
Anger, and is loath to abandon a people to
utter ruin, who have been called
By his name. When
God was to
give a
Sacrifice for
Sin, and a
Saviour for sinners, he spared
not his own Son, that he might spare us. This is the language of
the
Day of his patience; but when men
Sin that away, then the
great
Day of his wrath comes.
Man's compassions are nothing in
comparison with the tender mercies of our
God, whose thoughts
and ways, in receiving returning sinners, are as much above ours
as
Heaven is above the
Earth.
God knows how to
Pardon Poor
sinners. He is
Faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and
therein declares his
Righteousness, now
Christ has purchased the
Pardon, and he has promised it. Holy trembling at the
Word of
Christ will draw us to him, not drive us from him. When he roars
like a lion, the slaves tremble, and flee from him, the children
tremble, and flee to him. And all that come at the
Gospel Call,
shall have a place and a name in the
Gospel Church. The
religious services of
Israel were mere hypocrisy, but in
Judah
regard was had to
God's laws, and the people followed their
pious forefathers. Let us be
Faithful: those who thus honour
God, he will honour, but such as despise Him shall be lightly
esteemed.