Hosea 14:3 Asshur shall not save us; we will not ride on horses: neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, You are our gods… It is a great point of wisdom to take advantages with the stream of our temper to praise God. It is one branch of redeeming the time, to observe what state and temper of soul we are in, and to take advantage from thence. Add some encouragements to incite us to praise God. We honor God by it. It is a gainful trading with God. It is a most noble act of religion. We have more cause to praise God than to pray; having many things to praise Him for, which we never prayed for. Praise being a larger sacrifice than prayer, we ought to be abundant in it. If we be much in praising God, we shall be much in joy, which easeth misery. How shall we know that God accepts these sacrifices of praise? Under the old law God witnessed by fire from heaven. If we find our hearts warmed, cheered, and encouraged with joy, peace, and comfort in praising God, this is as it were a witness by fire from heaven, that our sacrifices are accepted. Here is also a promise of new obedience, which hath two branches. 1. A renunciation of the ill courses they took before. "Asshur shall not save us." The people of God, in any distress, had recourse for help to the Assyrians or the Egyptians, as if God had not been sufficient to be their rock and shield.Learn — 1. That man naturally is prone to put confidence in the creature. 2. That the creature is insufficient and unable to yield us this prop to uphold our confidence. 3. That God's people when they are endowed with light supernatural, to discern and be convinced hereof, are of that mind to say, "Asshur shall not save us." As a preparative for the treatment of these points, notice that reformation of life must be joined with prayer and praise; and that true repentance is of the particular sin which we are most addicted to and most guilty of. The particular sin of this people was their confidence in Assyria, horses, and idols. Naturally we are apt and prone to confidence in outward helps and present things. Because having lost communion with God, somewhat we must have to stay the soul. Because Satan joins with our sense and fancy, by which we are naturally prone to live, esteeming of things not by faith and by deeper grounds, but by fancy. These outward things cannot help us, and so are not to be relied on. "Asshur shall not save us." He is but a creature. He is an enemy. He is an idolater. "A horse is a vain thing for safety." When God alters and changes and moulds anew the heart of a man to repentance, He altereth his confidence in the creature. "In Thee the fatherless findeth mercy." When a man hath once repented, there is a closing between God and him, and he seeth an all-sufficiency in God to satisfy all his desires. Therefore he will use all other things as helps, and as far as it may stand with His favour. How shall we know whether we exceed in confidence in the creature, or not? We may know it by adventuring on ill courses and causes. When there is such confidence in the creature, as for us to outdare God, then there is too much trust in the creature; and that trust will end in confusion. By security and resting the soul in meaner things; never seeking to Divine and religious helps, when we are supplied with those that are outward. Let us take heed of carnal confidence. All is but vanity. Things do not yield that which we expect they should yield. There is a falsehood in the things; they promise this and that in shows, but when we possess them they yield it not; as they have no strength in deed, so they deceive. Then there is mutability in them. And they are snares and baits to us, to draw us away from God, by reason of the vanity of our nature. Let this be the end of all, touching this carnal confidence, to beware that we do not fasten our affections too much upon any earthly thing, at home or abroad, within or without ourselves: for "God will destroy the wisdom of the wise." Let us use all outward helps, yet so as to rely upon God for His blessing in the use of all. ( Sibbes, Richard, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: Asshur shall not save us; we will not ride upon horses: neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, Ye are our gods: for in thee the fatherless findeth mercy. |
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