Come, let us return to the LORD. For He has torn us to pieces, but He will heal us; He has wounded us, but He will bind up our wounds. Sermons
I. AN ENCOURAGEMENT TO GODLY REPENTANCE. (Vers. 1, 2.) The opening clause of ver. 1 consists of an earnest self-exhortation, and this is succeeded in the remainder of the two verses by arguments in support of it. The nerve-thought of these is, that restoration to the Divine favor wilt succeed repentance. The expatriated Hebrews, in their miserable exile and God-forsakenness, shall have a profound conviction of their guilt wrought within their hearts; and they shall return to their long-slighted Lord in the confident hope of a favorable reception. Their restoration, they are persuaded, will be: 1. Certain. The words of vers. 1, 2 evince strong faith. There is in them the pulse-beat of a firm confidence. He who tore will also heal. lie who inflicted the agony will bestow the joy. True penitence is always accompanied with some measure of faith. It cherishes the hope of mercy. It lays hold of the truth contained in that magnificent proverb, "God never strikes with both hands." It accepts the testimony of the Eternal, that he "dwells with him that is of a contrite and humble spirit." 2. Speedy. The definite limits of time here mentioned (ver. 2) are intended to assure us that the restoration of Israel shall come not only certainly, but quickly. Jehovah is slow to chide, but he is swift to bless. It may seem to us a long time since Israel's rejection; it is now nearly two thousand years since the Romans destroyed Jerusalem. But "one day is with the Lord," etc. (2 Peter 3:8). Many commentators have judged that Christ's resurrection "in the third day is indicated here. And no doubt an analogy is traceable between the events of Israel's history and events in the life of the Messiah (cf. Hosea 11:1 and Matthew 2:15). But it is one thing to apply the prophet's words to the great fact of Christ's resurrection, and another thing to conclude that that event is even so much as indirectly foretold by this language. 3. Complete. We shall live before his face" (ver. 2). The face is an index of character. It reveals the mind and heart. A man naturally turns his face towards the person whom he loves, and turns it away from one whom he dislikes. God had "withdrawn himself from" Israel (Hosea 5:6, 15); but now again, in the day of their revival, he shall "cause his face to shine upon them." The contrite ones live in the open smile of the Divine favor, and enjoy the perpetual sunshine of the Divine presence. II. AN ENCOURAGEMENT TO SAVING KNOWLEDGE. (Ver. 3.) The first part of this verse should be translated, "Then let us know, follow on to know, Jehovah." This is a further self-exhortation, parallel to that in ver. 1. Jehovah had become unknown in Israel (Hosea 4:1). But the resolve to "return to him involves the resolution to know" him, and to grow in that knowledge continually. Such knowledge has a very practical aim. It is a life, not a mere science; an experience, not a speculation. It leads a man to own God and to serve him. It will fill the mind with brightness, and the life with fruitfulness. We sometimes call theology "the queen of the sciences;" but this heart-knowledge of God is more - it is "life eternal" (John 17:3). Two attractive emblems are presented in the latter part of the verse for our encouragement in the pursuit of saving knowledge. With the ancient Jewish rabbins, we are to be in these an anticipation of the Redeemer of men. Jehovah comes in the Person of his Son, Jesus Christ, as "the morning;" and he comes in the Spirit of his Son, as "the rain." 1. "The morning." The Lord Jesus is the Aurora, or Dayspring from on high; - the Sun of righteousness, who has arisen with healing in his wings, He will be welcomed yet as such by the entire Hebrew nation. His coming has flooded the world with the light of life. "His going forth," like the morning, brings brightness and joy to the believer. "O happy day, that fixed my choice," etc. It brings also freshness; for the knowledge of Jesus is to the Christian always new, and full of infinite variety. The morning is irresistible in its coming; and the "going forth" of Christ "is prepared as the morning," i.e. decreed in the purposes of Jehovah's love. The morning comes increasingly; and thus also the believer who follows on to know the Lord shall "go from strength to strength," from the dawning light "unto the perfect day" (Proverbs 4:18). 2. "The rain." In Palestine, the two rainy seasons here referred to were most necessary and precious. The "former rain," which fell in October, preceded the seedtime, and prepared the earth for cultivation. The "latter rain," which felt in April, filled the ears before harvest, and perfected the fruit. Now, God shall come to Israel in the last days - as he comes to his people in every age - by his Holy Spirit, "as the rain." The rain is refreshing; and so the knowledge which the Spirit imparts comforts the hearts of young converts, and matures the character of experienced Christians. The rainfall is variable; and the coming of the Spirit varies in like manner, according to God's will and our faith. The rain is trouble-giving - it comes amid shadow and gloom, sometimes with thunder and tempest; and so the Spirit often visits the soul by means of deep and painful heart-searchings on account of sin. The rain is fertilizing - its absence would cause dearth and barrenness; so the knowledge of God will make those hearts fruitful which beforetime yielded only thorns and briers (Hebrews 6:7, 8). CONCLUSION. Although we in this age do not live in the last days of Israel's restoration, the sweet voice of this mutual appeal is for us. We need to stir up our own hearts to exercise the grace of repentance, and to pursue the study of saving knowledge. Some of us perhaps have gone astray into very miry paths, and have been sorely chastised for our sin. Oh for grace to respond to this twofold appeal, that we may know the Lord our Savior as the bright Morning and the genial Rain, and that we may "live in his sight"! - C.J.
Come, and let us return unto the Lord. Skeletons of Sermons. These words are the expressions of that penitence which was excited in the Israelites by God's departure from them, and by His grace that accompanied the affliction.I. THE CHARACTERISTIC MARKS OF TRUE PENITENCE. It will always be attended by — 1. A sense of our departure from God. With unregenerate men the thought of being at a distance from God never distresses. As soon as the grace of repentance is given, men see that they are as sheep gone astray. 2. An acknowledgment of affliction as a just chastisement for sin. The impenitent heart murmurs and rebels under the Divine chastisements: the penitent "hears the rod, and Him that appointed it." 3. A determination to return to God. When a man is once thoroughly awakened to a sense of his lost condition, he can no longer be contented with a formal round of duties. To hear of Christ, to seek Him, are from henceforth his chief desire, his supreme delight. 4. A desire that others should return to Him also. This is insisted on as characteristic of the great work that shall be accomplished in the latter day (Isaiah 2:3). The penitent feels it incumbent on him to labour for the salvation of others. II. THE GROUNDS ON WHICH A PENITENT MAY TAKE ENCOURAGEMENT TO RETURN TO GOD. 1. From a general view of God's readiness to heal us. 2. From that particular discovery of it which we have in the wounds He has inflicted on us.Apply — 1. To those who have deserted God. 2. To those who are deserted by God. (Skeletons of Sermons.) Homilist. The prophet calls on those who had been smitten, or sent into exile, to put away all confidence in an arm of flesh, to renounce all idolatries.I. THAT SOCIETY IS AWAY FROM GOD. Not locally, of course: for the Great Spirit is with all and in all, but morally. Society is away from Him in its thoughts; away from Him in its sympathies; away from Him in its pursuits. II. THAT ESTRANGEMENT FROM GOD IS THE SOURCE OF ALL ITS TRIALS. Because the prodigal left his father's home he got reduced to the utmost infamy and wretchedness. Moral separation from God is ruin. Cut the branch from the root and it withers; the river from its source, and it dries up; the planet from the sun, and it rushes into ruin. Nothing will remove the evils under which society is groaning but a return unto God. Legislation, commerce, science, literature, art, none of these will help it much so long as it continues away from Him. III. THAT RETURN TO HIM IS A POSSIBLE WORK. (Homilist.) II. God's dealings with the backslider. "He hath torn — He hath smitten." It is in mercy, and not in wrath, that God deals with His backsliding children. Punishment has for its object, the vindication of the authority of God as the moral Ruler. It is judicial as well as remedial. But its chief purpose is the backslider's restoration. III. A GLIMMER OF FAITH ON THE PART OF THE BACKSLIDER. "He will heal us — He will bind us up." In the heart of the backslider there lies hidden the germ of a God-given faith, like seeds in a mummy case. IV. THE GOODLY RESOLVE. "Come, and let us return unto the Lord." Some seek to heal their backslidings without dealing with God Himself. How are we to return? Through Jesus, the once crucified, the now risen and exalted One. (W. P. Lockhart.) I. WHEREVER THERE IS TRUE REPENTANCE, THERE WILL BE A RETURNING UNTO THE LORD.1. A true penitent will be sensible, not only of straying from God, which hath made a distance between God and him, but that his straying hath begotten an averseness, and turned his back upon God, so that he needs to return. 2. A penitent will have a deep sense, that all other courses he has essayed in his straying from God, are but vanity. II. THE ORDINARY FORERUNNER OF A TIME OF MERCY, IS THE LORD'S STIRRING UP HIS PEOPLE TO SEEK HIM. Here they are excited, and excite one another to this duty. "Come, and let us return," and this is their temper in a time of love. (George Hutcheson.) For He hath torn, and He will heal us The philosophy of the Divine judgments is here most explicitly expounded. The motive of every Divine judgment, within the limits of this life, is mercy. We see but dimly what may lie beyond this life. Here, at any rate, the one constant patient aim of God, by every means of influence which He wields, is to bring men unto Himself. It is important to remember, what some schools of Christian thought have strangely forgotten, that God's righteousness is not a righteousness which would be satisfied equally by the conversion, or by. the punishment of a sinner. We cannot abstract the righteousness from the living person who is also the Father of that sinner; and who loves him with such tenderness that He is capable of even an infinite sacrifice, that that child may not die but live. God's righteousness, God's justice, God's holiness, yearn for the restoration of the sinner to righteousness, quite as much as His mercy and His love. And through life they are spending all their arts and efforts to take him captive, and to bring him home. It is beginning to be fully recognised, in the physical sphere, that judgments are but rich blessings in disguise. There are indeed some dark passages of Scripture history which seem to contradict this principle: e.g., Pharaoh of the hardened heart. This cannot be fully explained, but it makes this terrible suggestion — what must be the doom of a heart that is hardened even against the Divine love? There is a growing hardness where the will is in it. The blow that is sent in mercy, if it fails to open the heart's sealed portals, strikes down. The heart hardened against God, hardens itself further. And this is His law, and part of the solemn conditions of our life. But there,, is nothing on earth irreparable while "we can repent and turn unto the Lord; for He hath torn, and He win heal us." There is absolutely nothing in the experience of the sinner, the sufferer, which God cannot transmute into joy. No calamity can long oppress the spirit which He wills to draw to the shield of His strength, and to rest on the bosom of His love. Or is the sorrow a remembrance of sin? With the word of forgiveness, the bitterness of the sorrow passes. God can forgive the iniquity of the sill IS it temptation? Believe that temptation is God's benignant ordinance for the trial and assay of spirits. God has not left you untroubled.(J. Baldwin Brown, B. A.) 1. When God's time of mercy is come, He puts a mighty spirit of seeking into men.2. A joint turning to God is very honourable to god. "Come, and let us return." 3. Times of mercy are times of union. 4. True penitent hearts seek to get others to join with them. 5. In times of the greatest sufferings a truly penitent heart retains good thoughts of God. 6. a penitent heart is not a discouraged heart. 7. A repenting heart is not a discouraged, but a sustained heart. But we must not falsely encourage ourselves. Our hope is in God. (Jeremiah Burroughs.) He hath smitten, and He will bind us up The text may be considered as the language of a Church.I. SMARTING UNDER RECENT CHASTISEMENTS. 1. Shew the sufferings of such a Church. 2. These sufferings are to be received as from the hand of God. 3. And regarded as chastisements of God for the sins of the Church. II. HOPING FOR A SPEEDY REVIVAL. That hope rests on the following grounds. 1. On the mingled exercises of mercy and judgment which characterise God's government of His Church. 2. On the regard which God has to the honour of His name, and the success of His cause in the earth. 3. On the ground of the mediatorial prerogatives of the Son of God. 4. On the promised power and grace of the Holy Spirit. III. RESOLVING UPON IMMEDIATE REFORMATION. Let us give up the language of complaint and mutual recrimination, and substitute for it the voice of prayer. (T. Vasey.) The reason here given, why the Israelites could return safely and with sure confidence to God is, that they would acknowledge it as His office to heal after He has smitten, and to bring a remedy for the wounds which He has inflicted. The prophet means that God does not so punish men as to pour forth His wrath on them for their destruction; but that He intends, on the contrary, to promote their salvation, when He is severe in punishing their sins. The beginning of repentance is a sense of God's mercy; when men are persuaded that God is ready to give pardon, they then begin to gather courage to repent; otherwise perverseness will ever increase in them.( John Calvin.) People Adam, Haggai, HoseaPlaces Assyria, Gilead, ShechemTopics Bandage, Bind, Bindeth, Blows, Heal, Injured, Pieces, Return, Smite, Smitten, Stricken, Torn, Turn, Wounded, WoundsOutline 1. Exhortations to repent and hope in God.4. A lamentation over those who had sinned after conviction. 5. Reproofs of obstinate sinners, and threats against them. Dictionary of Bible Themes Hosea 6:1 5298 doctors Library Our Miseries, Messengers of MercyThree things I must do this morning; first, I must deal a blow, at the old Tempter, who has got the first hand at you; secondly, I will come to reason comfortably with you; and then, thirdly, I must lovingly persuade you, saying--"Come, let us return unto the Lord." I. First then, I must DEAL A BLOW AT THE OLD TEMPTER, WHO HAS GOT BEFORE ME AND HAS BEGUN TO DECEIVE YOU. I cannot tell what is the precise temptation that Satan has been using with you, but I think it is very likely to be one of four. … Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 7: 1861 Nature of Covenanting. The Limitations of Earth's Great Week. The Synagogue at Nazareth - Synagogue-Worship and Arrangements. St Gregory the Great (Ad 540-604) Letter xv (Circa A. D. 1129) to Alvisus, Abbot of Anchin Prayer. The Coming Revival The Strait Gate. Warned against Herod. The Work of Jesus Christ as an Advocate, Jesus Defends Disciples who Pluck Grain on the Sabbath. Backsliding. Divine Calls. Of the Nature of Regeneration, and Particularly of the Change it Produces in Men's Apprehensions. Job's Faith and Expectation Hosea Links Hosea 6:1 NIVHosea 6:1 NLT Hosea 6:1 ESV Hosea 6:1 NASB Hosea 6:1 KJV Hosea 6:1 Bible Apps Hosea 6:1 Parallel Hosea 6:1 Biblia Paralela Hosea 6:1 Chinese Bible Hosea 6:1 French Bible Hosea 6:1 German Bible Hosea 6:1 Commentaries Bible Hub |
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