HOSHEA and Isaiah prophesied at the same time. Hosea prophesied for seventy years so that he continued long after Isaiah was taken to glory. In this chapter he exhorts Israel to return to the Lord—”Oh Israel return unto the Lord thy God, etc.” God deals with men as responsible creatures, so the guilt of their fall is laid at their own door—”Thou hast fallen by thine iniquity.” He then calls upon them, as responsible creatures, to return—”Return unto the Lord thy God.” This is man’s duty, and no excuse will be taken before God if he does not obey. Many excuse themselves that they are not able to return unless the Lord will help them, but our inability will be no excuse. The person who is truly and sincerely convinced of his inability if he is not already in the kingdom of heaven he is not far from it.
The prophet now goes on to teach them what to pray for—”Take with you words.” They feel they know not what to say—”Say, take away all iniquity, etc.”—original and actual sins. Their confession, however, is not the ground on which they are to be received. Conviction is not conversion. Those who are truly taught by the Spirit do not look to be received because they confess their sins and ask forgiveness, but they look to the grace of God—”Receive us graciously.”
We have then their confession—”Asshur shall not save us, we will not ride upon horses.” Dr Kennedy, in speaking of the horses on which the sinner rode, said: “The first horse on which he rode was Presumption, and there was not a commandment in the law but he would jump. The second was Morality, and the fame of this horse spread through the country. The third horse was Liberality, and its fame spread through the countries. The fourth horse was the white horse of Public Profession, and the saddle was as white as the horse, but the poor man mounted the horse with his boots full of mire, and soon dirtied the horse. The man, however, became bankrupt, and the horse was taken from him. The fifth horse he rode was a thin, lanky one, with its bones almost through its skin, and its mouth unbroken, and would go wherever it liked. Its name was ‘Strict Demands of Justice and Accusations of Conscience.’ The man saw it was making straight for a bottomless pit of mire and tried to get off, but before he could dismount he was pitched into the pit, and before he could cry for help his mouth, ears, and eyes were full of mire. This was the first opportunity mercy had of helping him. Mercy pulled him out and cleaned his mouth, and the first thing he did was to sing the praises of mercy, and he continued to praise it except when he had a cold. He ceased now riding on horses.”
The Lord is now giving them great and precious promises, and among others He says: “I will be as the dew unto Israel, etc.” We shall notice two things.
I. The promise given—”I will be as the dew unto Israel.”
II. The fruit which follows—”He shall grow as the lily, etc.”
I. The promise—”I will be as the dew unto Israel.”
Of all the promises in Scripture I consider this one of the richest, and because of its richness it is not given indiscriminately, it is confined to Israel, God’s people. What are we to understand by the “dew”? The language is figurative. We take it to mean God’s Word applied by the Holy Spirit. Now there are two Words. There is the Personal and the Inspired Word. (1). The Personal, which is Christ—”In the beginning was the Word,” etc. When the sinner is awakened to a sense of his lost state he sees his sins so great that he is ready to conclude that there is no forgiveness for him, but when Christ, “the Word made flesh,” is revealed, and he is enabled by faith to apprehend Him in His fulness and sufficiency, he sees so much efficacy in Him that as the late Charles Calder said: “Though I had a thousand souls as guilty as the one I have I see enough in the Lamb of God (the Personal Word) that I could trust them all to Him.” (2). The Inspired Word. (a) The Inspired Word might be compared to dew because of its innumerable and rich promises. When the dew comes down it covers the face of the ground with innumerable little drops. The best arithmetician could never count them. So it is with the promises of Scripture. Did you ever meet with one who was able to count them. When the Word comes with light and power to the poor, dejected sinner he sees, even in one passage, enough for time and eternity. The light and understanding he gets on God’s Word is made so clear to him that he concludes that whatever doubts and fears he may meet with he can never lose sight of this. He thinks he can put his hand in his pocket and produce them at his pleasure, but when the Lord hides His face he cannot bring back what he felt. His pockets are empty. He must be as a poor needy sinner kept going between his own emptiness and Christ’s fulness. “The just must live by faith.” (b) There are times and seasons when the dew comes down more copiously than at other times, such as in the early morning and in spring. In the winter it is not seen. Now, the Christian in the morning and spring of his life of faith enjoys much of the love of Christ, but as he goes on in his wilderness journey long hot summer days of temptations and trials meet him. Then follows cold, dark, wintry nights, and what formerly came as dew now comes as hailstones. The streams and pools in which he used to drink are now often covered with ice. Such is often the experience of this man. The Word is silent, the means of grace, public and private, where he used to drink are now dry. He is like Job: “Oh that I knew where I might find Him . . . Behold I go forward but He is not there,” etc. (Job 23). “He calls to mind the days of old.” (c) The Word, as the dew, comes down both on the good and rocky ground, but there is a difference. The good soil says, as it were, I must drink in the dew before the sun rises for, if not, it will suck it up and I will be as dry and parched as ever. So the child of God seeks to hide His Word in his heart—”I have hid Thy Word in my heart that I might not sin against thee.” On the other hand, the rocky ground leaves the dew lying on the surface, and when the sun gets up you will see a white cloud rising up: the sun is sucking away the dew. This is true of the wicked and nominal professor. The Word of God has no place in them. The devil, the world, and the flesh take it away, as we have in the parable of the sower.
II. The fruit which follows—”He shall grow as the lily,” etc.
I only intend to take up three of these fruits—(1) Their growing up as the lily: (2) Their growing down—”They cast forth their roots as Lebanon”: (3) Their spreading—”Their branches shall spread.” (1) Their growing up as the lily. There are two things true of the lily in its growth: (a) It grows rapidly. The lily here spoken of is not altogether the same as we have in this country, but probably it is of the same species. The lily grows quicker than any plant in the garden. On a warm spring morning you could almost see it growing. The same is true of the sinner when awakened by the Spirit. He leaves off whatever outward sins he indulged in. There is an outward reformation immediately. He now sees that “the end of these things is death.” He cannot continue committing them any longer. There is a rapid growth from a state of condemnation to a state of justification. The line between these two is so thin that it cannot be discerned. Man must be either under the covenant of works or the covenant of grace. There is no middle place. During War time there was a piece of land between the opposing armies known as “No Man’s Land.” But between the covenants of works and grace there is no such land. (b) The lily has a beautiful growth. There is no flower more beautiful than the lily. How beautiful would the young men and women of Glendale be if they were Christ’s lilies. The late Mr Macdonald, Sheildaig, used to say, in speaking of the “Rose of Sharon”—”Young men and women put roses in their button-holes to adorn themselves, but put you Christ the Rose of Sharon in a broken heart, and that will make you beautiful.” There is nothing more beautiful than a sinner clothed with Christ’s righteousness: “Behold the daughter of the King is all glorious within.” These lilies will grow in grace and in the knowledge of their Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ until they are made perfect in holiness, and then they shall be transplanted to the garden above. (2) Their growing down—”They shall cast forth their roots as Lebanon.” These are wonderful lilies. They have the growth of the lily but not its roots. They have the roots of the cedar, so there is no danger of them falling. I would mention two roots: (a) They have the root of faith. Roots that are seen and only on the surface are of no use to the tree. They must go down in the earth before they nourish it. Historical and such faiths will not nourish or save the soul. Now saving faith is a root that is not seen. It is the act of the soul and you cannot see the soul act. This root, faith, goes down in the earth of God’s Word and draws its sustenance from there: “As new born babes desire the sincere milk of the Word.” Again the tree does not live on its roots but by them: “The just shall live by faith.” While the root is not seen yet its work is seen in the fruit on the tree, but the tree does not live on its fruit but by its roots. If you saw a tree with much fruit and said: Won’t you be well off with all that fruit? If it could answer it would reply: “It is not on my fruit I live but by my roots. One gust of wind on a frosty night may strip me of all my fruit.” So the believer; he cannot live on duties, duties which were even performed in faith and love or on his past experiences. One squall of temptation and unbelief will deprive him of them; yet, where this root of faith is, it must show itself in the fruits of righteousness, else it is dead. “Faith without works (fruit) is dead.” We have seen trees uprooted by the storm rotting, with their roots as dry stumps in the air. If these trees lived on their roots they would still live, but because their roots were out of the ground they died. So the kind of faith which is not fixed in God’s Word will allow the soul die. Trees sometimes entwine their roots round stones and rocks, and when the storms blow these are the roots which mainly keep them from falling. The same is true spiritually. There are certain portions of scripture which came with power and unction round which the believer’s faith entwined itself, and when storms of temptations and troubles come these strengthened him more than others, and especially the passage by which he first got deliverance. The storms will shake the tree, but that will only cause the roots to go deeper and firmer in the earth. The same is true of the Church—”They are in heaviness through manifold temptations that the trial of their faith being much more precious than of gold that perisheth,” etc. (I. Peter i. 6.) (b) They have the root of hope. I am not going to enlarge on this root because much of what might be said has already been referred to in speaking of the root, faith. Hope, like faith, is a root that grows down out of sight in the Word of God. “Hope that is seen is not hope, for what a man seeth why doth he yet hope for?” (Rom. viii. 24). Faith and hope go together, they are never separate. Faith takes hold of the promise and hope waits patiently for the fulfilment of the promise of which faith takes hold. These two roots keep the soul from falling in the world, and will keep him at death. Paul says: “I know whom I have believed and I am persuaded He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day” (II. Tim. i. 12). “The righteous has hope in his death.” “The hypocrite’s hope shall perish.” (3) Their spreading—”Their branches shall spread.” I will briefly mention two branches: (a) The branch of love. This branch spreads out in love to Christ, to His Word, means, people, cause, and sinners in general. They would wish to see the cause of God prosper, and are grieved when they see it falling. Their desire is that other poor sinners would taste of this love. As Paul said to Agrippa: “I would to God that not only thou but also all that hear me this day were both almost and altogether such as I am except these bonds” (Acts xxvi. 29). The late Rev. Finlay Cook was catechising a woman once and asked her: “How many beds have you?” “Three,” she replied. “What are they?” “(1) A bed of pity in which I put all in a Christless state going to eternity; (2) A bed of hope in which I put all for whom I cherish a hope though they are still in their natural state; (3) The bed of love in which I put all who love the Lord Jesus Christ whatever their colour may be.” (b) The branch of prayer. This branch spreads under the influence of dew. When the believer is without the dew and under the power of unbelief, he is like a sick man, you cannot get him away from speaking of his own trouble, nor from his own fireside, but when health returns he is seen away perhaps miles from home. So with the Lord’s people. When in darkness it is their own state and condition, but let the dew come and immediately they are enlarged in prayer. It spread so far with David that it went to the ends of the earth.—”Let the whole earth be filled with His glory.” If you have a hope that there are such milestones in your life then obey your Lord’s command: “Do this in remembrance of me.” May the Lord bless His own Word.
Repentance Not Within Our Own Call.
What multitudes there are who harden their hearts, under a presumption that repentance is within the reach of their own call! As they naturally hate the work, they think it is quite enough to turn to God when they can scarcely turn themselves in their beds: thus they presume upon the mercy of God, that they may trample on His justice: and never think of escaping the wrath of God, till the very gates of hell seem opening before them.—Rowland Hill.