Thy calf, O Samaria, hath cast thee off; mine anger is kindled against them: how long will it be ere they attain to innocency? For from Israel was it also: the workman made it; therefore it is not God: but the calf of Samaria shall be broken in pieces. For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind: it hath no stalk: the bud shall yield no meal: if so be it yield, the strangers shall swallow it up. Israel is swallowed up: now shall they be among the Gentiles as a vessel wherein is no pleasure. For they are gone up to Assyria, a wild ass alone by himself: Ephraim hath hired lovers. Yea, though they have hired among the nations, now will I gather them, and they shall sorrow a little for the burden of the king of princes. - Hos. 8:5-10 They promised themselves plenty, peace, and victory, by worshipping idols, but their expectations came to nothing. What they sow has no stalk, no blade, or, if it have, the bud shall yield no fruit, there was nothing in them. The works of darkness are unfruitful; nay, the end of those things is death. The hopes of sinners will deceive them, and their gains will be snares. In times of danger, especially in the day of judgment, all carnal devices will fail. They take a course by themselves, and like a wild ass by himself, they will be the easier and surer prey for the lion. Man is in nothing more like the wild asss colt, than in seeking for that succour and that satisfaction in the creature, which are to be had in God only. Though men may sorrow a little, yet if it is not after a godly sort, they will be brought to sorrow everlastingly. -- Matthew Henry Hosea 8:7 For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind - “They shall reap,” not merely as “they have sown,” but with an awful increase. They sowed folly and vanity, and shall reap, not merely emptiness and disappointment, but sudden, irresistible destruction. “They sowed the wind,” and, as one seed bringeth forth many, so the wind, “penn’d up,” as it were, in this destructive tillage, should “burst forth again, reinforced in strength, in mightier store and with great violence.” Thus they “reaped the whirlwind,” yea, (as the word means) “a mighty whirlwind”. But the whirlwind which they reap doth not belong to “them;” rather they belong to it, blown away by it, like chaff, the sport and mockery of its restless violence. It hath no stalk - If their design should for the time seem to prosper, all should be but empty show, disappointing the more, the more it should seem to promise. He speaks of three stages of progress. First, the seed should not send forth the grain with the ear; “it hath no stalk or standing corn;” even if it advanced thus far, still the ear should yield no meat; or should it perchance yield this, the enemy should devour it. Since the yielding fruit denotes doing works, the fruit of God’s grace, the absence of the “standing corn” represents the absence of good works altogether; the absence of the “meal,” that nothing is brought to ripeness; the “devouring” by “the enemy,” that what would otherwise be good, is, through faulty intentions or want of purity of purpose, given to Satan and the world, not to God. : “When hypocrites make a shew of good works, they gratify therewith the longings of the evil spirits. For they who do not seek to please God therewith, minister not to the Lord of the field, but to “strangers.” The hypocrite, then, like a fruitful but neglected “ear,” cannot retain his fruit, because the “ear” of good works lieth on the ground. And yet he is fed by this very folly, because for his good works he is honored by all, eminent above the rest; people’s minds are subject to him; he is raised to high places; nurtured by favors. But “then” will he understand that he has done foolishly, when, for the delight of praise, he shall receive the sentence of the rebuke of God.” - Barnes Commentary
Posted on: Thu, 30 Oct 2014 00:11:35 +0000
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