HOSEA 2
Jehovah had said in chapter 1 that He would no more have mercy on the house of Israel, and He refused to acknowledge them as His people. But He looked on to a future day when they would be addressed as “Sons of the living God”. In verse 1 of the chapter now before us we find that, notwithstanding Jehovah’s rejection of the nation, there were those who could be owned as His people, and who had obtained mercy. This shows that even when the general state is so bad that God cannot own it, He is pleased to have a remnant which He can own. It is so today. Not that those of the remnant are better in themselves than others, but through God’s mercy they have had experience of His restoring ways as they are outlined in this chapter. We have all had to learn to judge the unfaithfulness and idolatry to which we are naturally prone. I suppose that, at some time or other, we have all known what it was to have our way hedged up (verse 6) so that we were unable to pursue the course which we had proposed to ourselves. God did not allow us to succeed in our self-chosen path. This particularly applies to those who have turned away from what they once knew of God. If there is in any heart a remembrance of former happiness which has now been lost, it is a powerful appeal to return. “I will go and return to my first husband, for then was it better with me than now”, verse 7. Paul says to the Galatians, “What then was your blessedness?” reminding them of a joy which they once had. It is sometimes well to ask, Have I ever been happier in my relations with God than I am now? If so, it is because I have gone away from Him; I had better return at once. All that constitutes true happiness for the intelligent creature is to be found in God Himself. But the result of sin having come in is that the natural heart prefers anything to God. Any foolish propensity, or momentary gratification, any form of self-confidence or self-righteousness, or self-pleasing in a religious way, may be a Baal to seduce us from faithfulness to the only true God and Jesus Christ His sent One.
But God has alluring ways even with an unfaithful people. “Therefore behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak to her heart”, verse 14. His governmental ways and correction are seen in verses 6 - 13. He has to make His people feel the seriousness of departure from Him — the poverty and disappointment it entails. But He does not fail to allure,
[p. 4] and to speak to the heart. He is still a faithful Lover, bent upon making Himself attractive to the poor heart that has forgotten Him, but whose responsive affection He is set upon having. Being brought into the wilderness here is the result of being allured; it suggests that she is brought in a tender and appealing way. Her heart is so affected that she is prepared for a position where she will have nothing but Himself, and where she will hear no voice but His. It corresponds with Jeremiah 2: 2, “I remember for thee the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after me in the wilderness, in a land not sown”. The divine allurements are very wonderful; God proposes to be known, not merely as the merciful Benefactor of His people, but as coveting their affection in a most intimate and personal way, so that His love may be more attractive and satisfying than the whole realm of created things. The wilderness here is in contrast with the corn and new wine and oil which she had employed for Baal. Under the divine alluring she comes apart from all that to be satisfied with Jehovah alone, and the communications of His love. Every heart that takes up this position will find fulness of joy. “And I will give her her vineyards from thence”. If, in response to the divine alluring, we are content to have our portion in the love of God, He will give us all that is in the purpose of that love. “Thou wentest after me in the wilderness, in a land not sown”. That was what He appreciated; there was nothing else to attract them, and He was sufficient.
Then the valley of Achor is given “for a door of hope”; verse 15. That was where the first movement of departure in the land was fully judged (Joshua 7:24), and this is always necessary. True affectionate response to God will always be accompanied by thorough judgment of that in our own hearts which led us away from Him. This is a true door of hope; it opens up to us all that love is so ready to give; and the result is that “she shall sing there as in the days of her youth and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt”. The singing here is an answer or response (see margin of New Translation) to the known love of God. Then Jehovah is claimed in an affectionate way as “My husband” (verse 16), the rival Baals have lost their power, and are remembered no more. He undertakes to defend His people from all their enemies, and He betroths them to Himself for ever; verses 18 - 20. It is now a blessed known reality that Jehovah has become Man, not only to save sinners, but that He might be known in an affectionate relation of which a husband [p. 5] is the scriptural type. He had betrothal in view from the outset with each of us; that is, that we should be altogether for Him on the ground that He had been altogether for us. He is entitled to us, for He died for us when we were in a state of death. The love of Christ is known as claiming us to live to Him, and this claim love recognises and yields to. It is, indeed, a matter of righteousness as well as love that we should live to Him and not to ourselves, for we are not our own; we have been bought with a price.
Righteousness, judgment, loving-kindness, mercies, faithfulness, in verses 19, 20, are precious qualities or characteristics of Jehovah, but in this connection they suggest that those betrothed to Him will have features which correspond with Him whom they now claim as Husband. They are moral features which stand in contrast with what is here, and betrothal could hardly be thought of apart from suitability. We are going to be like Christ eternally, but the effect of knowing this is that we purify ourselves even as He is pure. There is a remarkable link of communication between the top and the bottom in verses 21, 22. Jizreel is looked at as being down here on earth, but she is linked by a wonderful chain with Jehovah on high. There is no discord or want of harmony between the bottom and the top. It is wonderful to think of there being something down here which is in harmony with heaven, and with the divine Persons who are there. The saints are fitted, through infinite grace, to be with Christ up there, but they also become, by the work of God, morally suitable to Him down here. They would hardly have the true character of betrothed ones otherwise. Prophecy will not be needed in heaven, but it is necessary down here that conditions may be brought about in the saints morally and spiritually that correspond with what is above.
It is thus that a testimony is secured down here. “And I will sow her unto me in the land”, verse 23. In a future day Israel will appear on earth as the fruit of God’s sowing, and will show forth His praise. But Peter, having this very scripture in mind, gives it present application to the sojourners of the dispersion when he says, “But ye are a chosen race, a kingly priesthood, a holy nation, a people for possession, that ye might set forth the excellencies of him who has called you out of darkness to his wonderful light; who once were not a people, but now God’s people; who were not enjoying mercy, but now have found mercy”, 1 Peter 2: 9, 10. There is thus a present Jizreel, a present result of God’s sowing, but it is found in those who have come into affectionate relation with Christ, “whom having not seen ye love, on whom though now not looking, but believing, ye exult with joy unspeakable and filled with the glory”, 1 Peter 1: 8. Such do really, in the spirit of it, call Him “my husband”; they are, indeed, betrothed to Him. Saints of the assembly ought not, surely, to be less active in their affections than Israel will be in a coming day.