Hosea 10:1-8 Israel is an empty vine, he brings forth fruit to himself: according to the multitude of his fruit he has increased the altars… The "burden" is still the same - Israel's guilt and punishment. But in the verses before us these are dealt with mainly in their external and national aspects. The most prominent thought of the passage centers in the calves and the kings. I. THE NATIONAL SIN. Although the prophet handles his theme in this strophe for the most part on its external side, yet in one or two expressions he refers to the root of the evil in the hearts of the people. "We feared not the Lord" (ver. 3); i.e. the men of Israel had forsaken the service of Jehovah, and rejected him as their Portion. "Their heart is divided" (ver. 2), or "smooth," i.e. insincere. They did not devote themselves to the love and worship of God, and yet they could not make up their minds to part altogether either with him or with their idols. Such was the root of the national sinfulness. But Hosea here calls attention rather to: 1. Its forms in the national life. These were principally two. (1) Trust in idols. Israel had allowed his sense of the solitariness of the Godhead to be broken down, and had "increased" the number of altars to heathen divinities. So far from realizing that all the "springs" of the nation were in Jehovah alone, the people gave "his praise to graven images;" and the glory which was his due, to the personified powers of physical nature. (2) Trust in kings. The Hebrews had been guilty of high treason against Jehovah when, in the days of Samuel, they insisted upon having an earthly king set over them. And this sin became even more aggravated, on the part of the ten tribes, when they revolted from the theocratic monarchy which God had established at Jerusalem, and gave their allegiance to the usurpers who exercised the functions of royalty at Samaria. 2. Its manifestations in the national character. The people's sin incorporated itself with them, and they lapsed further and further into moral degradation. There was: (1) Self-indulgence. (Ver. 1.) Israel bad been a thriving and luxuriant "vine;" but his fruitfulness took a wrong direction: "he brought forth fruit unto himself," and was "empty" towards God. The people regarded themselves as at once the source and the end of their own prosperity; so, they abused it by spending it upon their lusts. (2) Ingratitude. (Ver. 1.) Increase of wealth, instead of attracting them to God's temple to express thankfulness to him as the great Giver, led them instead to multiply their altars and idolatrous superstitions. (3) Deceit and perjury. (Ver. 4.) Their "words" were insincere and untruthful; the "covenants" which they made (e.g. with Assyria) were deceitful. Nothing that the nation said could be depended on; the life of the community was a lie. (4) Perversion of justice. (Ver. 4.) A wicked king and a corrupt court poisoned the administration of law among the people. The judges took bribes, and their unrighteous decisions were as "hemlock" overgrowing fields which ought to have been waving with a healthful harvest of righteousness. II. THE NATIONAL PUNISHMENT. Israel is about to lose all the false defenses in which he gloried, and his heart shall have fear and shame for its melancholy heritage. The punishment is in these verses contemplated from a twofold point of view, viz.: 1. Its forms in the national life. (1) As regards the idols. There would presently be "fear for them (ver. 5). The very calves which bad been an object of trust and stay would become a source of anxious solicitude. Instead of feeling safe under the protection of their golden gods, the people would tremble for the safety of the gods themselves. In the fear of the Lord. is strong confidence;" but the men of Israel "feared not the Lord" (ver. 3), and their punishment was to "fear because of the calves." More than this, they would suffer the loss of them (vers. 2, 5, 6, 8). The images which Jeroboam had set up would be carried into captivity as a tribute "to King Jareb," the avenging Assyrian. In that way the calf-worship of the northern kingdom would come to an end. Bethel and Dan, Samaria and Gilgal, the centers of Israel's idolatry, would be destroyed. The shrines of Baal and Ashtaroth would be broken down, and thorns and thistles would grow luxuriantly upon the idol-altars. (2) As regards the kings. Already the monarchy was helpless (ver. 3). Although it may be that Hoshea (who proved to be the last king in Ephraim) was still upon the throne, the people were saying, "We have no king;" "What would a king do for us?" They see now, when it is too late, that it is vain to expect deliverance from monarchs who themselves do not fear God, and who have assumed their royalty in opposition to his will. Soon, too, the monarchy shall be finally destroyed (ver. 7). The king shall be "cut off as the foam upon the water," or as a chip which is carried down the stream and lost. Presently the long siege of Samaria shall begin; and in three years thereafter the standards of Shalmaneser shall wave over the ruined strongholds of that wicked city. But, again, the prophet refers to the national punishment in: 2. Its moral results upon the people. It would produce: (1) Mourning. (Ver. 5.) The people would lament because of the helplessness of the golden idols, in which they had gloried, and in which their false priests bad rejoiced. They would sadly grieve because of the ignominious deportation of the calves to Assyria. (2) Shame (ver. 6), because of "their own counsel;" the reference being to the untheocratic policy of the ten tribes in separating themselves ecclesiastically and politically from Judah and Jerusalem. The worldly-wise statecraft of Jeroboam, which for a time seemed to be so successful, involved Israel in an inheritance of shame. (3) Despair. (Ver. 8.) The calamities that were impending would be so dreadful, that thousands of the people would choose death rather than life. To die outright they would hail as a welcome relief from their burden of wretchedness and shame. They would desire that the hills upon which their idol-altars had stood might not merely hide them, but overwhelm and destroy them. LESSONS. 1. The spiritual dangers which accompany material prosperity. "Jeshu-run waxed fat, and kicked" (Deuteronomy 32:15). It is difficult to carry the full cup steadily (ver. 1). 2. The necessity, in order to a man's spiritual well-being, that he "keep his heart with all diligence" (ver. 2). 3. The sadness which comes from learning the truth too late, and the horrors of a too-late repentance (ver. 3). 4. The diffusive and self-disseminating power of evil (ver. 4). 5. The mourning of the wicked is for their losses rather than for their sins (vers. 5, 6). 6. The one true security and strength of a nation consists in the fear of God (vers. 3, 7). 7. The judgment denounced here upon the ten tribes, like that of the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, is a type of the final general judgment (ver. 8; Luke 23:30; Revelation 6:16). - C.J. Parallel Verses KJV: Israel is an empty vine, he bringeth forth fruit unto himself: according to the multitude of his fruit he hath increased the altars; according to the goodness of his land they have made goodly images. |
    |