The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up; his sin is stored up. Sermons
I. MORAL MALADIES ARE NOT HEALED BY POLITICAL REMEDIES. II. THE SPLENDOR OF KINGS IS NO COMPENSATION FOR THE MISERY OF THE PEOPLE. III. EARTHLY AUTHORITY CAN ONLY BE EXERCISED WITHIN LIMITS APPOINTED BY DIVINE PROVIDENCE. IV. A CORRUPT COURT IS AN EVIL EXAMPLE TO AN UNSTABLE POPULATION. V. NO SECULAR - CIVIL OR MILITARY - POWER CAN AVERT THE CONSEQUENCES OF APOSTASY AND DEBASEMENT. VI. KINGS THEMSELVES ARE SUBJECT, AS WELL AS CITIZENS, TO THE LAWS OF A RETRIBUTIVE PROVIDENCE. - T.
I gave thee a king in Mine anger, and took him away in My wrath. The Israelites seem to have asked for a king from an unthankful caprice and waywardness. The ill conduct of Samuel's sons was the occasion, an "evil heart of unbelief" was the cause. To punish them, God gave them a king "after their own heart." There is, in true religion, a sameness, an absence of hue and brilliancy, in the eyes of the natural man. Samuel had too much of primitive simplicity about him to please the Israelites; they felt they were behind the world, and clamoured to be put on a level with the heathen. Saul had much to recommend him to minds thus greedy of the dust of the earth. He was brave, daring, resolute; gifted, too, with strength of body as well as of mind. Both his virtues and his faults were such as became an Eastern monarch, and were adapted to secure the fear and submission of his subjects. Samuel's conduct in the national emergency is far above human praise. Personally qualified Saul was for a time a prosperous king. But from the beginning the prophet's voice is raised both against the people and king in warnings and rebukes, which are omens of his destined destruction, according to the text. Here, then, a question may be raised — Why was Saul thus marked for vengeance from the beginning? The question leads to a deeper inspection of his character. The first duty of every man is the fear of God — a reverence for His Word, a love of Him, and a desire to obey Him. Now Saul lacked "his one thing." He was never under the abiding influence of religion, however he might be at times moved and softened. What nature made him, that he remained, without improvement; with virtues which had no value, because they required no effort, and implied the influence of no principle. There was a deadness to all considerations not connected with the present world. It is his habit to treat prophet and priest with a coldness, to say the least, which seems to argue some great internal defect. We have no reason to believe, from the after history, that the Divine gift at his anointing left any religious effect on his mind. The immediate occasion of his rejection was his failing under a specific trial of his obedience, as set before him at the very time he was anointed. There was no professed or intentional irreverence in Saul's conduct. He outwardly respected the Mosaic ritual. But he was indifferent, and cared for none of these things. From the time of Saul's disobedience in the matter of Amalek, Samuel came no more to see Saul, whose season of probation was over. He finishes his bad history by an open act of apostasy from the God of Israel. He consulted the sorceress at Endor. Unbelief and wilfulness are the wretched characteristics of Saul's history — an ear deaf to the plainest commands, a heart hardened against the most gracious influences.(J. H. Newman, B. D.) 1. God may have a hand in things wherein men sin exceedingly. 2. Things that are evil may yet have present success. 3. God's gifts are not always in love. Take heed of immoderate desires for any worldly thing. I. HOW WE MAY KNOW THAT WHAT GOD GIVES IS IN ANGER, NOT IN LOVE. It is a very hard thing to convince men, if they have their desires satisfied, that it is rather from anger than love. Men are so well pleased with the satisfying of their desires that they can be very hardly convinced but that God intends good to them in it 1. When you desire a gift, rather than God in it. When your desires are for the gift rather than the Giver, you can have no comfort that there is love in it. 2. When our desires are immoderate and violent. 3. When God grants men their desires before the due time. They have what they would have, but they have it not in God's time. 4. When God grants us what we would have, but without the blessing. He grants the thing, but takes away the blessing of the thing, He takes away the comfort and satisfaction of it. "They shall eat, but they shall not be satisfied." 5. When that which we desire is merely to satisfy our lusts. We do not desire such and such things that by them we may be fitted for the service of God. 6. When men are so eager that they care not whether the gift comes from a reconciled or a provoked God; it is all one to them (Numbers 11.). 7. When God regards not our preparation for a mercy. Carnal hearts take no great care themselves of it. Let me have it, say they, our fitness matters not. It is your sin and wickedness not to regard the preparation of your hearts for what you have, and it is God's judgment to give it to you before you are pre pared. A gracious heart, when it would have a mercy, is as careful to get the heart prepared for the mercy as to obtain it. 8. When we rest on the means we use, and seek not God by prayer. 9. When God gives us our desires, but not a sanctified use of them. When God gives you the shell, but not the kernel, surely it is not in love. All the good things that wicked men have, are but shells without kernels. 10. When a secret curse attends what we have. 11. When we regard not what becomes of others, so we have our wants satisfied. 12. When God, in satisfying our desires, makes way for some judgment. 13. When men are greedy of things to the disregard of results; when they would have their desires satisfied in a foolish way, never minding what inconveniences may follow, but merely looking to their present comfort. 14. When men seek to have their desires satisfied, merely because they love change. 15. When our desires of further mercies make us forget former mercies. 16. When men desire new things out of mistrust of God. 17. If we seek to attain our desires by unlawful means. (Jeremiah Burroughs.) (Evenings at Home.) People HoseaPlaces Egypt, SamariaTopics Bound, Ephraim, E'phraim, Guilt, Hid, Hidden, Iniquity, Kept, Laid, Record, Secret, Shut, Sin, Sins, Store, Stored, WrongdoingOutline 1. Ephraim's glory vanishes.4. God's anger. 9. God's mercy. 15. The judgment of Samaria. Dictionary of Bible Themes Hosea 13:12 5558 storing Library Destruction and Help'O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in Me is thine help.'--HOSEA xiii. 9 (A.V.). 'It is thy destruction, O Israel, that thou art against Me, against thy Help' (R.V.). These words are obscure by reason of their brevity. Literally they might be rendered, 'Thy destruction for, in, or against Me; in, or against thy Help.' Obviously, some words must be supplied to bring out any sense. Our Authorised Version has chosen the supplement 'is,' which fails to observe the second occurrence with 'thy … Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture Letter xxxvi (Circa A. D. 1131) to the Same Hildebert, who had not yet Acknowledged the Lord Innocent as Pope. The Joyous Return "For if Ye Live after the Flesh, Ye Shall Die; but if Ye through the Spirit do Mortify the Deeds of the Body, Ye Shall Live. How a Private Man must Begin the Morning with Piety. What the Scriptures Principally Teach: the Ruin and Recovery of Man. Faith and Love Towards Christ. Thoughts Upon Striving to Enter at the Strait Gate. The Knowledge of God The Quotation in Matt. Ii. 6. Hosea Links Hosea 13:12 NIVHosea 13:12 NLT Hosea 13:12 ESV Hosea 13:12 NASB Hosea 13:12 KJV Hosea 13:12 Bible Apps Hosea 13:12 Parallel Hosea 13:12 Biblia Paralela Hosea 13:12 Chinese Bible Hosea 13:12 French Bible Hosea 13:12 German Bible Hosea 13:12 Commentaries Bible Hub |
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