Hosea 4:19 The wind has bound her up in her wings, and they shall be ashamed because of their sacrifices. The wind hath bound her up in her wings, and they shall be ashamed because of their sacrifices. The simple meaning of this is, Israel shall be borne away from her land, suddenly and violently, as by the winds of heaven. There is retributive justice in the universe. Men are slow to discern it, and it often moves so silently and secretly as to elude the dim vision of the wicked. Still it is in existence, and it works like the thunderstorm; it may sleep silently in the heavens for some time, but break into tempest and fury it must, sooner or later. The verse leads us to notice two things in relation to this retributive justice. I. ITS EMBLEM. It is here compared to the "wind." Why is it like "wind?" 1. In its agitatior. Wind is a disturbance or an agitation of the atmosphere. The average condition of the air is silence and serenity. The normal condition of Divine government is quiet, it has no tempest where there is not wickedness. The growing heat of sin so disturbs it that it often breaks into an all-devastating fury, it is like "wind." 2. In its violent. There is often a mighty power in the wind. It sometimes "rends the mountains and breaks in pieces the rocks." It has overturned the "mountains by the roots;" it has "broken the cedars, even the cedars of Lebanon, and shaken the wilderness." Cambyses being once in the wilderness with the soldiers, a strong and violent wind broke and buried thousands of them in the sand. Who can stand before retributive justice when it comes forth in its power? "The wind hath bound her up in her wings." Avenging justice binds its victim up, and carries it away - whether it be an individual, a nation, or a world - as tempests carry off the chaff. II. ITS EFFECT. "And they shall be ashamed because of their sacrifices." Shame - moral shame, the primary element in the soul's hell - ever comes to the victim of retributive justice. 1. There is the shame of disappointment. All plans broken, all purposes thwarted, all hopes destroyed. "Let me not be ashamed of my hope," said David. 2. There is the shame of exposure. The wicked always live in masquerade; they always appear to be what they are not; they are necessarily hypocrites. Retributive justice takes off the mask and lays bare their hearts in all their revolting foulness. 3. There is the shame of remorse. This is the most burning shame of all. It sends its fires down into the very center of man's being, and sets all the moral nerves aflame. CONCLUSION. Take warning, ye wicked sons of men; let not the present stillness of your atmosphere deceive you; your sins are generating a heat that must sooner or later so disturb the elements about you, as to bring on you ruin and fill you with "shame and confusion of face." "A year has ended. Let the good man pause, And think, for he can think, of all its crime And toil and suffering. Nature has her laws That will not brook infringement; in all time, All circumstances, all states, in every clime, She holds aloft the same avenging sword; And, sitting on her boundless throne sublime, The vials of her wrath, with justice stored, Shall, in her own good hour, on all that's ill be poured." (James Gates Percival.) D.T. Parallel Verses KJV: The wind hath bound her up in her wings, and they shall be ashamed because of their sacrifices. |
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