H
O S E A
CHAP. I.
The
mind of God is revealed to this prophet, and by him to the people, in the
first three chapters, by signs and types, but afterwards only by discourse. In
this chapter we have, I. The general title of the whole book, ver. 1. II. Some
particular instructions which he was ordered to give to the people of God. 1.
He must convince them of their sin in going a whoring from God, by marrying a
wife of whoredoms, ver. 2, 3. 2. He must foretel the ruin coming upon them for
their sin, in the names of his sons, which signified God's disowning and
abandoning them, ver. 4-6, 8, 9. 3. He must speak comfortable to the kingdom
of Judah, which still retained the pure worship of God, and assure them of the
salvation of the Lord, ver. 7. 4. He must give an intimation of the great
mercy God had in store both for Israel and Judah, in the latter days (ver. 10,
11), for in this prophecy many precious promises of mercy are mixed with the
threatenings of wrath.
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The
Time of Hosea's Prophecy.
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B.
C. 768.
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1 The word of the LORD
that came unto Hosea, the son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and
Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king
of Israel.
1. Here is the prophet's name and surname; which he himself, as other
prophets, prefixes to his prophecy, for the satisfaction of all that he is
ready to attest what he writes to be of God; he sets his hand to it, as that
which he will stand by. His name, Hosea, or Hosea (for it is the
very same with Joshua's original name), signifies a saviour; for
prophets were instruments of salvation to the people of God, so are faithful
ministers; they help to save many a soul from death, by saving it from sin.
his surname was Ben-Beeri, or the son of Beeri. As with us now,
so with them then, some had their surname from their place, as Micah the
Morashite, Nahum the Elkoshite; others from their parents, as Joel the son of
Bethuel, and here Hosea the son of Beeri. And perhaps they made use of that
distinction when the eminence of their parents was such as would bring honour
upon them; but it is a groundless conceit of the Jews that where a prophet's
father is names he also was a prophet. Beeri signifies a well,
which may put us in mind of the fountain of life and living waters from which
prophets are drawn and must be continually drawing. 2. Here are his authority
and commission: The word of the Lord came to him. It was to him; it
came with power and efficacy to him; it was revealed to him as a real thing,
and not a fancy or imagination of his own, in some such way as God then
discovered himself to his servants the prophets. What he said and wrote was by
divine inspiration; it was by the word of the Lord, as St. Paul speaks
concerning that which he had purely by revelation, 1 Thess. iv. 15. Therefore
this book was always received among the canonical books of the Old Testament,
which is confirmed by what is quoted out of it in the New Testament, Matt. ii.
15; ix. 13; xii. 7; Rom. ix. 25, 26; 1 Pet. ii. 10. For the word of the Lord
endures for ever. 3. Here is a particular account of the times in which he
prophesied--in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of
Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel. We
have only this general date of his prophecy; and not the date of any
particular part of it, as, before, in Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel,
and, afterwards, in Haggai and Zechariah. Here is only one king of Israel
named, though there were many more within this time, because, having mentioned
the kings of Judah, there was no necessity of naming the other; and, they
being all wicked, he took no pleasure in naming them, nor would do them the
honour. Now by this account here given of the several reigns in which Hosea
prophesied (and it should seem the word of the Lord still came to him, more or
less, at times, throughout all these reigns) it appears, (1.) That he
prophesied a long time, that he began when he was very young, which gave him
the advantage of strength and sprightliness, and that he continued at his work
till he was very old, which gave him the advantage of experience and
authority. It was a great honour to him to be thus long employed in such good
work, and a great mercy to the people to have a minister so long among them
that so well knew their state, and naturally cared for it, one they had been
long used to and who therefore was the more likely to be useful to them. And
yet, for aught that appears, he did but little good among them; the longer
they enjoyed him the less they regarded him; they despised his youth first,
and afterwards his age. (2.) That he passed through a variety of conditions.
Some of these kings were very good, and, it is likely, countenanced and
encouraged him; others were very bad, who (we may suppose) frowned upon him
and discouraged him; and yet he was still the same. God's ministers must
expect to pass through honour and dishonour, evil report and good report,
and must resolve in both to hold fast their integrity and keep close to their
work. (3.) That he began to prophesy at a time when the judgments of God were
abroad, when God was himself contending in a more immediate way with that
sinful people, who fell into the hands of the Lord, before they were
turned over into the hands of man; for in the days of Uzziah, and of
Jeroboam his contemporary, the dreadful earthquake was, mentioned Zech. xiv. 5
and Amos i. 1. And then was the plague of locusts, Joel i. 2-4; Amos vii. 1;
Hos. iv. 3. The rod of God is sent to enforce the word and the word of God is
sent to explain the rod, yet neither prevails till God by his Spirit opens the
ear to instruction and discipline. (4.) That he began to prophesy in Israel at
a time when their kingdom was in a flourishing prosperous condition, for so it
was in the reign of Jeroboam the second, as we find 2 Kings xiv. 25, He
restored the coast of Israel, and God saved them by his hand; yet
then Hosea boldly tells them of their sins and foretels their destruction. Men
are not to be flattered in their sinful ways because they prosper in the
world, but even then must be faithfully reproved, and plainly told that their
prosperity will not be their security, nor will it last long if they go on
still in their trespasses.
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The
Prophet's Marriage; Threatenings against Israel; Intimation of Mercy
to
Judah.
B. C. 768.
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2 The beginning of the word of the LORD
by Hosea. And the LORD said to Hosea, Go, take
unto thee a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms: for the land hath
committed great whoredom, departing from the LORD.
3 So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim; which conceived, and bare
him a son. 4 And the LORD
said unto him, Call his name Jezreel; for yet a little while, and I
will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu, and will cause to
cease the kingdom of the house of Israel. 5 And it shall come to
pass at that day, that I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel.
6 And she conceived again, and bare a daughter. And God said unto him,
Call her name Lo-ruhamah: for I will no more have mercy upon the house of
Israel; but I will utterly take them away. 7 But I will have mercy
upon the house of Judah, and will save them by the LORD
their God, and will not save them by bow, nor by sword, nor by battle, by
horses, nor by horsemen.
These words, The beginning of the word of the Lord by Hosea, may refer
either, 1. To that glorious set of prophets which was raised up about this
time. About this time there lived and prophesied Joel, Amos, Micah, Jonah,
Obadiah, and Isaiah; but Hosea was the first of them that foretold the
destruction of Israel; the beginning of this word of the Lord was by him.
We read in the history of this Jeroboam here named (2 Kings xiv. 27) that the
Lord had not yet said he would blot out the name of
Israel, but soon after he said he would, and Hosea was the man that began
to say it, which made it so much the harder task to him, to be the first that
should carry an unpleasing message and some time before any were raised up to
second him. Or, rather, 2. To Hosea's own prophecies. This was the first
message God sent him upon to this people, to tell them that they were an
evil and an adulterous generation. He might have desired to be excused
from dealing so roughly with them till he had gained authority and reputation,
and some interest in their affections. No; he must begin with this,
that they might know what to expect from a prophet of the Lord. Nay, he must
not only preach this to them, but he must write it, and publish it, and leave
it upon record as a witness against them. Now here,
I. The prophet must, as it were in a looking-glass, show them their sin,
and show it to be exceedingly sinful, exceedingly hateful. The prophet is
ordered to take unto him a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms,
v. 2. And he did so, v. 3. He married a woman of ill fame, Gomer
the daughter of Diblaim, not one that had been married and had committed
adultery, for then she must have been put to death, but one that had lived
scandalously in the single state. To marry such a one was not malum in
se--evil in itself, but only malum per accidens--incidentally an evil,
not prudent, decent, or expedient, and therefore forbidden to the priests, and
which, if it were really done, would be an affliction to the prophet (it is
threatened as a curse on Amaziah that his wife should be a harlot, Amos vii.
17), but not a sin when God commanded it for a holy end; nay, if commanded, it
was his duty, and he must trust God with his reputation. But most commentators
think that it was done in vision, or that it is no more than a parable;
and that was a way of teaching commonly used among the ancients, particularly
prophets; what they meant of others they transferred to themselves in a
figure, as St. Paul speaks, 1 Cor. iv. 6. He must take a wife of
whoredoms, and have such children by her as every one would suspect,
though born in wedlock, to be children of whoredoms, begotten in
adultery, because it is too common for those who have lived lewdly in the
single state to live no better in the married state. "Now" (saith
God) "Hosea, this people is to me such a dishonour, and such a grief and
vexation, as a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms would
be to thee. For the land has committed great whoredoms." In all
instances of wickedness they had departed from the Lord; but their idolatry
especially is the whoredom they are here charged with. Giving that glory to
any creature which is due to God alone is such an injury and affront to God as
for a wife to embrace the bosom of a stranger is to her husband. It is
especially so in those that have made a profession of religion, and have been
taken into covenant with God; it is breaking the marriage-bond; it is a
heinous odious sin, and, as much as any thing, besots the mind and takes away
the heart. Idolatry is great whoredom, worse than any other; it
is departing from the Lord, to whom we lie under greater obligations
than any wife does or can do to her husband. The land has committed
whoredom; it is not here and there a particular person that is guilty of
idolatry, but the whole land is polluted with it; the sin has become national,
the disease epidemical. What an odious thing would it be for the prophet, a holy
man, to have a whorish wife, and children whorish like her! What an
exercise would it be of his patience, and, if she persisted in it, what could
be expected but that he should give her a bill of divorce! And is it not then
much more offensive to the holy God to have such a people as this to be
called by his name and have a place in his house? How great is his patience
with them! And how justly may he cast them off! It was as if he should have
married Gomer the daughter of Diblaim, who probably was at that time a noted
harlot. The land of Israel was like Gomer the daughter of Diblaim. Gomer
signifies corruption; Diblaim signifies two cakes, or lumps
of figs; this denotes that Israel was near to ruin, and that their luxury
and sensuality were the cause of it. They were as the evil figs that
could not be eaten, they were so evil. It intimates sin to be the daughter of
plenty and destruction the daughter of the abuse of plenty. Some give this
sense of the command here given to the prophet: "Go, take thee a wife of whoredoms,
for, if thou shouldst go to seek for an honest modest woman, thou wouldst not
find any such, for the whole land, and all the people of it, are given to
whoredom, the usual concomitant of idolatry."
II. The prophet must, as it were through a perspective glass, show them their
ruin; and this he does in the names given to the children born of this
adulteress; for as lust, when it has conceived, brings forth sin,
so sin, when it is finished, brings forth death.
1. He foretels the fall of the royal family in the name he is appointed to
give to his first child, which was a son: Call his name Jezreel, v.
4. We find that the prophet Isaiah gave prophetical names to his children (Isa.
vii. 3; viii. 3), so this prophet here. Jezreel signifies the seed of God
(so they should have been); but it signifies also the scattered of God;
they shall be as sheep on the mountains that have no shepherds. Call them
not Israel, which signifies dominion, they have lost all the honour
of that name; but call them Jezreel, which signifies dispersion, for
those that have departed from the Lord will wander endlessly. Hitherto they
have been scattered as seek; let them now be scattered as chaff. Jezreel was
the name of one of the royal seats of the kings of Israel; it was a beautiful
city, seated in a pleasant valley, and it is with allusion to that city that
this child is called Jezreel, for yet a little while and I will
avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu, from whom the present
king, Jeroboam, was lineally descended. The house of Jehu smarted for the sins
of Jehu, for God often lays up men's iniquity for their children and visits it
upon them. It is the kingdom of the house of Israel, which may be meant
either of the present royal family, that of Jehu, which God did quickly cause
to cease (for the son of this Jeroboam, Zechariah, reigned but six
months, and he was the last of Jehu's race), or of the whole kingdom in
general, which continued corrupt and wicked, and which was made to cease
in the reign of Hoshea, about seventy years after; and with God that is but a little
while. Note, Note, Neither the pomp of kings nor the power of kingdoms can
secure them from God's destroying judgments, if they continue to rebel against
him. (2.) What is the ground of this controversy: I will revenge the blood
of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu, the blood which Jehu shed at Jezreel,
when by commission from God and in obedience to his command, he utterly
destroyed the house of Ahab, and all that were in alliance with it, with all
the worshippers of Baal. God approved of what he did (2 Kings x. 30): Thou
has done well in executing that which is right in my eyes; and yet here
God will avenge that blood upon the house of Jehu, when the time has
expired during which it was promised that his family should reign, even to the
fourth generation. But how comes the same action to be both rewarded and
punished? Very justly; the matter of it was good; it was the execution of a
righteous sentence passed upon the house of Ahab, and, as such, it was
rewarded; but Jehu did it not in a right manner; he aimed at his own
advancement, not at the glory of God, and mingled his own resentments with the
execution of God's justice. He did it with a malice against the sinners, but
not with any antipathy to the sin; for he kept up the worship of the golden
calves, and took no heed to walk in the law of God, 2 Kings x. 31. And
therefore when the measure of the iniquity of his house was full, and God came
to reckon with them, the first article in the account is (and, being first, it
is put for all the rest) for the blood of the house of Ahab, here called the blood
of Jezreel. Thus when the house of Baasha was rooted out it was because he
did like the house of Jeroboam, and because he killed him, 1 Kings xvi.
7. Note, Those that are entrusted with the administration of justice are
concerned to see to it that they do it from a right principle and with a right
intention, and that they do not themselves live in those sins which they
punish in others, lest even their just executions should be reckoned for,
another day, as little less than murders. (3.) How far the controversy shall
proceed; it shall be not a correction, but a destruction. Some make those
words, I will visit, or appoint, the blood of Jezreel upon the house of
Jehu, to signify, not as we read it the revenging of that bloodshed, but
the repeating of that bloodshed: "I will punish the house of Jehu, as I
punished the house of Ahab, because Jehu did not take warning by the
punishment of his predecessors, but trod in the steps of their idolatry. And
after the house of Jehu is destroyed I will cause to cease the kingdom of
the house of Israel; I will begin to bring it down, though now it
flourish." After the death of Zechariah, the last of the house of Jehu,
the kingdom of the ten tribes went to decay, and dwindled sensibly. And, in
order to the ruin of it, it is threatened (v. 5), I will break the
bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel; the strength of the warriors of
Israel, so the Chaldee. God will disable them either to defend themselves
or to resist their enemies. And the bow abiding in strength, and being renewed
in the hand, intimates a growing power, so the breaking of the bow
intimates a sinking ruined power. The bow shall be broken in the valley of
Jezreel, where, probably, the armoury was; or, it may be, in that valley
some battle was fought, wherein the kingdom of Israel was very much weakened.
Note, There is no fence against God's controversy; when he comes forth against
a people their strong bows are soon broken and their strong-holds broken down.
In the valley of Jezreel they shed that blood which the righteous God would in
that very place avenge upon them; as some notorious malefactors are hanged in
chains just where the villainy they suffer for was perpetrated, that the
punishment may answer the sin.
2. He foretels God's abandoning the whole nation in the name he gives to the
second child. This was a daughter, as the former was a son, to intimate that
both sons and daughters had corrupted their way. Some make to signify that
Israel grew effeminate, and was thereby enfeebled and made weak. Call the name
of this daughter Lo-ruhamah--not beloved (so it is translated Rom. ix.
25), or not having obtained mercy, so it is translated 1 Pet. ii. 10.
It comes all to one. This reads the doom of the house of Israel: I will no
more have mercy upon them. It intimates that God had shown them great
mercy, but they had abused his favours, and forfeited them, and now he would
show them favour no more. Note, Those that forsake their own mercies for lying
vanities have reason to expect that their own mercies should forsake them, and
that they should be left to their lying vanities, Jonah ii. 8. Sin
turns away the mercy of God even from the house of Israel, his own
professing people, whose case is sad indeed when God says that he will no more
have mercy upon them. And then it follows, I will utterly take them away,
will utterly remove them (so some), will utterly pluck them up,
so others. Note, When the streams of mercy are stopped we can expect no other
than that the vials of wrath should be opened. Those whom God will no more
have mercy upon shall be utterly taken away, as dross and dung. The word for taking
away sometimes signifies to forgive sin; and some take it in that
sense here: I will no more have mercy upon them, though in pardoning I have
pardoned them heretofore. Though God has borne long, he will not bear
always, with a people that hate to be reformed. Or, I will no more have
mercy upon them, that I should in any wise pardon them, or (as our margin
reads it) that I should altogether pardon them. If pardoning mercy is
denied, no other mercy can be expected, for that opens the door to all the
rest. Some make this to speak comfort: I will no more have mercy upon them
till in pardoning I shall pardon them, that is, till the Redeemer comes to
Zion to turn away ungodliness from Jacob. The Chaldee reads it, But, if
they repent, in pardoning I will pardon them. Even the greatest sinners,
if in time they bethink themselves and return, will find that there is
forgiveness with God.
III. He must show them what mercy God had in store for the house of Judah, at
the same time that he was thus contending with the house of Israel (v.
7): But I will have mercy upon the house of Judah. Note, Though some
are justly cast off for their disobedience, yet God will always secure to
himself a remnant that shall be the vessels and monuments of mercy. When
divine justice is glorified in some, yet there are others in whom free grace
is glorified. And, though some through unbelief are broken off, yet God will
have a church in this world till the end of time. It aggravates the rejection
of Israel that God will have mercy on Judah, and not on them, and magnifies
God's mercy to Judah that, though they also have done wickedly, yet God did
not reject them, as he rejected Israel: I will have mercy upon them and
will save them. Note, Our salvation is owing purely to God's mercy, and
not to any merit of our own. Now,
1. This, without doubt, refers to the temporal salvations which God wrought
for Judah in a distinguishing way, the favours shown to them and not to
Israel. When the Assyrian armies had destroyed Samaria, and carried the ten
tribes away into captivity, they proceeded to besiege Jerusalem; but God had
mercy on the house of Judah, and saved them by the vast slaughter which an
angel made, in one night, in the camp of the Assyrians; then they were saved
by the Lord their God immediately, and not by sword or bow. When the ten
tribes were continued in their captivity, and their land was possessed by
others, they being utterly taken away, God had mercy on the house of
Judah and saved them, and, after seventy years, brought them back, not
by might or power, but by the Spirit of the Lord of hosts, Zech. iv. 6. I
will save them by the Lord their God, that is, by myself. God will be
exalted in his own strength, will take the work into his own hands.
That salvation is sure which he undertakes to be the author of; for, if he
will work, none shall hinder. And that salvation is most acceptable which he
does by himself. So the Lord alone did lead him. The less there is of
man in any salvation, and the more of God, the brighter it shines and the
sweeter it tastes. I will save them in the word of the Lord (so the
Chaldee), for the sake of Christ, the eternal word, and by his power. I
will save them not by bow nor by sword, that is, (1.) They shall be saved
when they are reduced to so low an ebb that they have neither bow nor sword to
defend themselves with, Judg. v. 8; 1 Sam. xiii. 22. (2.) They shall be saved
by the Lord when they are brought off from trusting to their own strength and
their weapons of war, Ps. xliv. 6. (3.) They shall be saved easily, without
the trouble of sword and bow, v. 7. Isa. ix. 5, I will save them by
the Lord their God. In the calling him their God, he upbraids the
ten tribes who had cast him off from being theirs, for which
reason he had cast them off, and intimates what was the true reason why
he had mercy, distinguishing mercy, for the house of Judah, and saved them: it
was in pursuance of his covenant with them as the Lord their God, and in
recompence for their faithful adherence to him and to his word and worship.
But,
2. This may refer also to the salvation of Judah from idolatry, which
qualified and prepared them for their other salvations. And this is indeed a
salvation by the Lord their God; it is wrought only by the power of his
grace, and can never be wrought by sword or bow. Just at the time that
the kingdom of Israel was utterly taken away, under Hoshea, the kingdom
of Judah was gloriously reformed, under Hezekiah, and was therefore preserved;
and in Babylon God saved them from their idolatry first, and then from their
captivity.
3. Some make this promise to look forward to the great salvation which, in the
fulness of time, was to be wrought out by the Lord our God, Jesus
Christ, who came into the world to save his people from their sins.
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Temporary
Rejection of Israel; Promises of Mercy.
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8 Now when she had weaned Lo-ruhamah, she
conceived, and bare a son. 9 Then said God, Call his name
Lo-ammi: for ye are not my people, and I will not be your God.
10 Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea,
which cannot be measured nor numbered; and it shall come to pass, that
in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, there
it shall be said unto them, Ye are the sons of the living God.
11 Then shall the children of Judah and the children of Israel be gathered
together, and appoint themselves one head, and they shall come up out of the
land: for great shall be the day of Jezreel.
We have here a prediction,
I. Of the rejection of Israel for a time, which is signified by the name of
another child that Hosea had by his adulterous spouse, v. 8, 9. And
still we must observe that those children whose names carried these direful
omens in them to Israel were all children of whoredoms (v. 2),
all born of the harlot that Hosea married, to intimate that the ruin of Israel
was the natural product of the sin of Israel. If they had not first revolted
from God, they would never have been rejected by him; God never leaves any
till they first leave him. Here is, 1. The birth of this child: When she
had weaned her daughter, she conceived and bore a son. Notice is
taken of the delay of the birth of this child, which was to carry in its name
a certain presage of their utter rejection, to intimate God's patience with
them, and his unwillingness to proceed to extremity. Some think that her
bearing another son signifies that people's persisting in their wickedness;
lust still conceived and brought forth sin. They added to do
evil (so the Chaldee paraphrase expounds it); they were old in adulteries,
and obstinate. 2. The name given him: Call him Lo-ammi--Not my people.
When they were told that God would no more have mercy on them they
regarded it not, but buoyed up themselves with this conceit, that they were
God's people, whom he could not but have mercy on. And therefore he plucks
that staff from under them, and disowns all relation to them: You are not
my people, and I will not be your God. "I will not be yours
(so the word it); I will be in no relation to you, will have nothing to do
with you; I will not be your King, your Father, your patron and
protector." We supply it very well with that which includes all, "I
will not be your God; I will not be to you what I have been, nor what you
vainly expect I should be, nor what I would have been if you had kept close to
me." Observe, "You are not my people; you do not act as
becomes my people; you are not observant of me and obedient to me, as my
people should be; you are not my people, but the people of this and the other
dunghill-deity; and therefore I will not own you for my people, will not
protect you, will not put in any claim to you, not demand you, not deliver you
out of the hands of those that have seized you; let them take you; you are
none of mine. You will not have me to be your God, but pay your homage to the
pretenders, and therefore I will not be your God; you shall have no
interest in me, shall expect no benefit from me." Note, Our being taken
into covenant with God is owing purely to him and to his grace, for then it
begins on his side: I will be to them a God, and then they shall be to
me a people; we love him because he first loved us. But our being cast out
of covenant is owing purely to ourselves and our own folly. The breach is on
man's side: You are not my people, and therefore I will not be your
God; if God hate any, it is because they first hated him.
This was fulfilled in Israel when they were utterly taken away into the
land of Assyria, and their place knew them no more. They were no longer
God's people, for they lost the knowledge and worship of him; no
prophets were sent to them, no promises made to them, as were to the two
tribes in their captivity; nay, they were no longer a people, but, for
aught that appears, were mingled with the nations into which they were
carried, and lost among them.
II. Of the reduction and restoration of Israel in the fulness of time. Here,
as before, mercy is remembered in the midst of wrath; the rejection, as it
shall not be total, so it shall not be final (v. 10, 11): Yet the
number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea. See how
the same hand that wounded is stretched forth to heal, and how tenderly he
that has torn binds up; though God cause grief by his
threatenings, yet he will have compassion, and will gather with
everlasting kindness. They are very precious promises which are here made
concerning the Israel of God, and which may be of use to us now.
1. Some think that these promises had their accomplishment in the return of
the Jews out of their captivity in Babylon, when many of the ten tribes joined
themselves to Judah, and took the benefit of the liberty which Cyrus
proclaimed, came up in great numbers out of the several countries into which
they were dispersed, to their own land, appointed Zerubbabel their head, and
coalesced into one people, whereas before they had been two distinct nations.
And in their own land, where God had by his prophets disowned and rejected
them as none of his, he would by his prophets own them and appear for them as
his children; and from all parts of the country they should come up to the
temple to worship. And we have reason to think that, though this promise has a
further reference, yet it was graciously intended and piously used for the
support and comfort of the captives in Babylon, as giving them a general
assurance of mercy which God had in store for them and their land; their
nation could not be destroyed so long as this blessing was in it, was in
reserve for it.
2. Some think that these promises will not have their accomplishment, at least
not in full, till the general conversion of the Jews in the latter days, which
is expected yet to come, when the vast incredible numbers of Jews, that are
now dispersed as the sand of the sea, shall be brought to embrace the faith of
Christ and be incorporated in the gospel-church. Then, and not till then, God
will own them as his people, his children, even there where they had lain
under the dismal tokens of their rejection. The Jewish doctors look upon this
promise as not having had its accomplishment yet. But,
3. It is certain that this promise had its accomplishment in the setting up of
the kingdom of Christ, by the preaching of the gospel, and the bringing in
both of Jews and Gentiles to it, for to this these words are applied by St.
Paul (Rom. ix. 25, 26), and by St. Peter when he writes to the Jews of the
dispersion, 1 Pet. ii. 10. Israel here is the gospel-church, the spiritual
Israel (Gal. vi. 16), all believers who follow the steps, and inherit the
blessing of faithful Abraham, who is the father of all that believe, whether
Jews or Gentiles, Rom. iv. 11, 12. Now let us see what is promised concerning
this Israel.
(1.) That it shall greatly multiply, and the numbers of it be increased; it
shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered.
Though Israel according to the flesh be diminished and made few, the spiritual
Israel shall be numerous, shall be innumerable. In the vast multitudes that by
the preaching of the gospel have been brought to Christ, both in the first
ages of Christianity and ever since, this promise is fulfilled, thousands out
of every tribe in Israel, and out of other nations, a multitude which no
man can number, Rev. vii. 4, 9; Gal. iv. 27. In this the promise made to
Abraham, when God called him Abraham the high father of a multitude,
had its full accomplishment (Gen. xvii. 5), and that Gen. xxii. 17. Some
observe that they are here compared to the sand of the sea, not only
for their numbers, but as the sand of the sea serves for a boundary to the
waters, that they shall not overflow the earth, so the Israelites indeed are a
wall of defence to the places where they live, to keep off judgments. God can
do nothing against Sodom while Lot is there.
(2.) That God will renew his covenant with the gospel-Israel, and will
incorporate it a church to himself, by as full and ample a charter as that
whereby the Old-Testament church was incorporated; nay, and its privileges
shall be much greater: "In the place where it was said unto them, You
are not my people, there shall you be again admitted into covenant, and
owned as my people." The abandoned Gentiles in their respective
places, and the rejected Jews in theirs, shall be favoured and blessed.
There, where the fathers were cast off for their unbelief, the children, upon
their believing, shall be taken in. This is a blessed resurrection, the making
of those the people of God that were not a people. Nay, but the
privilege is enlarged; now it is not only, You are my people, as
formerly, but You are the sons of the living God, whether by birth you
were Jews or Gentiles. Israel under the law was God's son, his first-born,
but then they were as children under age; now, under the gospel, they
have grown up both to greater understanding and greater liberty, Gal. iv. 1,
2. Note, [1.] It is the unspeakable privilege of all believers that they have
the living God for their Father, the ever-living God, and may look upon
themselves as his children by grace and adoption. [2.] The sonship of
believers shall be owned and acknowledged; it shall be said to them,
for their comfort and satisfaction, nay, and it shall be said for their honour
in the hearing of the world, You are the sons of the living God. Let
not the saints disquiet themselves; let not others despise them; for, sooner
or later, there shall be a manifestation of the children of God, and all the
world shall be made to know their excellency and the value God has for them.
[3.] It will add much to their comfort, very much to their honour, when they
are dignified with the tokens of God's favour in that very place where they
had long lain under the tokens of his displeasure. This speaks comfort to the
believing Gentiles, that they need not go up to Jerusalem, to be received and
owned as God's children; no, they may stay where they are, and in that
place, though it be in the remotest corner of the earth, in that place
where they were at a distance, where it was said to them, "You are not
God's people," but are separated from them (Isa. lvi. 3, 6), even
there, without leaving their country and kindred, they may by faith receive
the Spirit of adoption, witnessing with their spirits that "they
are the children of God."
(3.) That those who had been at variance should be happily brought together (v.
11): Then shall the children of
Judah
and the children of
Israel
be gathered together. This uniting of Judah and Israel, those two
kingdoms that were now so much at variance, biting and devouring one another,
is mentioned only as a specimen, or one instance, of the happy effect of the
setting up of Christ's kingdom in the world, the bringing of those that had
been at the greatest enmity one against another to a good understanding one of
another and a good affection one to another. This was literally fulfilled when
the Galileans, who inhabited that part of the country which belonged to the
ten tribes, and probably for the most part descended from them, so heartily
joined with those that were probably called Jews (that were of Judea)
in following Christ and embracing his gospel; and his first disciples were
partly Jews and partly Galileans. The first that were blessed with the light
of the gospel were of the land of Zebulun and Naphtali (Matt. iv. 15);
and, though there was no good-will at all between the Jews and the Galileans,
yet, upon their believing in Christ, they were happily consolidated, and there
were no remains of the former disaffection they had to one another; nay, when
the Samaritans believed, though between them and the Jews there was a much
greater enmity, yet in Christ there was a perfect unanimity, Acts viii. 14.
Thus Judah and Israel were gathered together; yet this was but a type
of the much more celebrated coalition between Jews and Gentiles, when, by the
death of Christ, the partition-wall of the ceremonial law was taken down. See
Eph. ii. 14-16. Christ died, to gather together in one all the children of
God that were scattered abroad, John xi. 51; Eph. i. 10.
(4.) That Jesus Christ should be the centre of unity to all God's spiritual
Israel. They shall all agree to appoint to themselves one head, which
can be no other than he whom God has appointed, even Christ. Note, Jesus
Christ is the head of the church, the one only head of it, not only a head of
government, as of the body politic, but a head of vital influence, as of the
natural body. To believe in Christ is to appoint him to ourselves for our
head, that is, to consent to God's appointment, and willingly commit ourselves
to his guidance and government; and this in concurrence and communion with all
good Christians that make him their head; so that, though they are many, yet
in him they are one, and so become one with each other. Qui conveniunt in
aliquo tertio inter se conveniunt--Those who agree with a third agree with
each other.
(5.) That, having appointed Christ for their head, they shall come up out
of the land; they shall come, some of all sorts, from all parts, to join
themselves to the church, as, under the Jewish economy, they came up from all
corners of the land of Israel to Jerusalem, to worship (Ps. cxxii. 4), Thither
the tribes go up, to which there is a plain allusion in that prophecy of
the accession of the Gentiles to the church (Isa. ii. 3), Come, and let us
go up to the mountain of the Lord. It denotes not a local remove (for they
are said to be in the same place, v. 10), but a change of their mind, a
spiritual ascent to Christ. They shall come up from the earth (so it
may be read); for those who have given up themselves to Christ as their head
take their affections off from this earth, and the things of it, to set
them upon things above (Col. iii. 1, 2); for they are not of the world
(John xv. 19), but have their conversation in heaven. They shall come up
out of the land, though it be the land of their nativity; they shall, in
affection, come out from it, that they may follow the Lamb withersoever he
goes. Thus the learned Dr. Pocock takes it.
(6.) That, when all this comes to pass, great shall be the day of Jezreel.
Though great is the day of Jezreel's affliction (so some
understand it), yet great shall be the day of Jezreel's glory. This
shall be Israel's day; the day shall be their own, after their enemies
have long had their day. Israel is here called Jezreel, the seed of
God, the holy seed (Isa. vi. 13), the substance of the land.
This seed is now sown in the earth, and buried under the clods; but great
shall be its day when the harvest comes. Great was the church's day when there
were added to it daily such as should be saved; then did the Almighty do
great things for it.
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