August 9th, 2014. Churning love How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, Israel? How can I make you like Admah? How can I set you like Zeboiim? My heart churns within Me; My sympathy is stirred. Hosea 11:8 Here we see the intrinsic revelation of Gods love. His very being is expressed in His speaking:How can I give you up, Ephraim? This is like God speaking to you. Maybe you feel like you have been joined to idols. You have spoiled Gods discipline in your life. You have resisted Him. You feel like a cake unturned. You have even taken the devils categorizing that you are just a spoiled piece of humanity, that you have sinned yourself to ruin. Maybe all of this is how you feel. But over and above your feeling is Gods revelation of His love to you. And He is saying, How can I give you up? In other words, Gods love goes beyond Ephraims being joined to idols, being a cake unturned, rejecting the Word of God, and being full of lies and deceit. When the Lord says, My heart churns within Me; My sympathy is stirred, Gods love is revealed as something intrinsic to His very being. You cannot take it out of Him. This is His churning love. On the one hand, Ephraim deserves every kind of judgment for his absolute, willful rebellion against God. His awful record merits his being cast off completely. Yet, when Gods judgment comes to the foreground, mercy prevails and love overcomes Him. Far more than the consideration of any kind of judgment, love and mercy prevail. My heart churns within Me means that there is a turning in God Himself. This turning is also exemplified in Genesis 18:16- 32 when Abraham prayed for Sodom:Suppose there were fifty righteous within the city?... Suppose there should be forty righteous found there?... Suppose ten righteous should be found there?... Abraham appealed to the Lord in this way when He was about to destroy Sodom. Abrahams prayer could actually turn God and remind Him of His mercy and His love; and that is what prevailed-- His churning heart of love. How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, Israel? How can I make you like Admah? How can I set you like Zeboiim? My heart churns within Me; My sympathy is stirred. Hosea 11:8 Here God consults what he would do with the people: and first, indeed, he shows that it was his purpose to execute vengeance, such as the Israelites deserved, even wholly to destroy them:but yet he assumes the character of one deliberating, that none might think that he hastily fell into anger, or that, being soon excited by excessive fury, he devoted to ruin those who had lightly sinned, or were guilty of no great crimes. That no one then might assign to God an anger too fervid, he says here, How shall I set thee aside, Ephraim? How shall I deliver thee up, Israel? How shall I set thee as Sodom? By these expressions God shows what the Israelites deserved, and that he was now inclined to inflict the punishment of which they were worthy and yet not without repentance, or at least not without hesitation. He afterwards adds in the next clause, This I will not do; my heart is within me changed; I now alter my purpose, and my repenting are brought back again; that is it was in my mind to destroy you all, but now a repenting, which reverses that design, lays hold on me. We now apprehend what the Prophet means. As to this mode of speaking, it appears indeed at the first glance to be strange that God should make himself like mortals in changing his purposes and in exhibiting himself as wavering. God, we know, is subject to no passions; and we know that no change takes place in him. What then do these expressions mean, by which he appears to be changeable? Doubtless he accommodates himself to our ignorances whenever he puts on a character foreign to himself. And this consideration exposes the folly as well as the impiety of those who bring forward single words to show that God is, as it were like mortals; as those unreasonable men do who at this day seek to overturn the eternal providence of God, and to blot out that election by which he makes a difference between men. O! they say, God is sincere, and he has said that he willeth not the death of a sinner, but rather that he should be converted and live. God must then in this case remain as it were uncertain, and depend on the free- will of every one:it is hence in the power of man either to procure destruction to himself, or to come to salvation. God must in the meantime wait quietly as to what men will do, and can determine nothing except through their free- will. While these insane men thus trifle, they think themselves to be supported by this invincible reason, that Gods will is one and simple. But if the will of God be one, it does not hence follow that he does not accommodate himself to men, and put on a character foreign to himself, as much as a regard for our salvation will bear or require. So it is in this place. God does not in vain introduce himself as being uncertain; for we hence learn that he is not carried away too suddenly to inflict punishment, even when men in various ways provoke his vengeance. This then is what God shows by this mode of speaking. At the same time, we know that what he will do is certain, and that his decree depends not on the free- will of men; for he is not ignorant of what we shall do. God then does not deliberate as to himself, but with reference to men. This is one thing. But we must also bear in mind what I have already said, that the Prophet here strikes with terror proud and profane despisers by setting before their eyes their own destruction, and by showing how little short they were of the lot of Gomorra and other cities. For what remains, the Lord says, but that I should set you as Sodom and Zeboim? This condition and this recompense awaits you, if I execute the judgement which has been already as it were decreed. Not that God would immediately do this; but he only reminds the Israelites of what they deserved, and of what would happen to them, except the Lord dealt mercifully with them. Thus much of the first part of the verse. But when he says that his heart was changed, and that his repentings were brought back again, the same mode of speaking after the manner of men is adopted; for we know that these feelings belong not to God; he cannot be touched with repentance, and his heart cannot undergo changes. To imagine such a thing would be impiety. But the design is to show, that if he dealt with the people of Israel as they deserved, they would now be made like Sodom and Gomorra. But as God was merciful, and embraced his people with paternal affection, he could not forget that he was a Father, but would be willing to grant pardon; as is the case with a father, who, on seeing his sons wicked disposition, suddenly feels a strong displeasure, and then, being seized with relenting, is inclined to spare him. God then declares that he would thus deal with his people. August 9 MORNING THOU [ART] ALL FAIR, MY LOVE; [THERE IS] NO SPOT IN THEE. The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head [there is] no soundness in it; [but] wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.-- We are all as an unclean [thing], and all our righteousnesses [are] as filthy rags.-- I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing. Ye are washed,... ye are sanctified,... ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.-- The kings daughter [is] all glorious within.-- Perfect through my comeliness, which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord GOD. Let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us. These are they which... have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.-- A glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but... holy and without blemish.-- Ye are complete in him. CANT 4:7. Is 1:5, 6.-- Is 64:6.-- Ro 7:18. 1 Co 6:11.-- Ps 45:13.-- Eze 16:14. Ps 90:17. Re 7:14.-- Ep 5:27.-- Col 2:10. August 9 EVENING BROKEN CISTERNS, THAT CAN HOLD NO WATER. Eve... bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD. Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top [may reach] unto heaven.... The LORD scattered them.-- Lot chose him all the plain of Jordan;... it [was] well watered everywhere,... [even] as the garden of the LORD.... But the men of Sodom [were] wicked and sinners before the LORD exceedingly. I gave my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly: I perceived that this also is vexation of spirit. For in much wisdom [is] much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.-- I made me great works; I builded me houses; I planted me vineyards... I gathered me also silver and gold.... Then I looked on all,... and, behold, all [was] vanity and vexation of spirit. If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.-- He satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. JER 2:13. Ge 4:1. Ge 11:4, 8.-- Ge 13:11, 10, 13. Ec 1:17, 18.-- Ec 2:4, 8, 11. Jn 7:37.-- Ps 107:9. Col 3:2.
Posted on: Fri, 08 Aug 2014 21:32:42 +0000
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