Warning to Judah.
Judah had not yet sunk so low as Israel. She was, however, far from guiltless. Her princes were like them that remove the bound (Hosea 5:10). She is included with Israel in the threatenings that follow (Hosea 5:5, Hosea 5:10, Hosea 5:14; Hosea 6:4, Hosea 6:11). "The people did yet corruptly," is the testimony of the history (2 Chronicles 27:2). Still her case was not so hopeless but that judgment might be averted by timely repentance. There was still "some good thing" in Judah to work upon; something to appeal to. The prophet bids her take warning from the sister kingdom, "Come not ye unto Gilgal, neither go ye up to Beth-avon [Bethel]," etc. (Hosea 4:15). Judah should be warned—
I. BY ISRAEL'S INTRACTABLENESS. (Hosea 4:16) "Israel is intractable as an intractable heifer." The nation, that is, had proved unruly, obstinate, refractory, backsliding, unteachable. Nothing that God could do would induce it to walk quietly in his ways. This is a picture of the natural, unrenewed temper. "It is not subject to the Law of God, neither indeed can be' (Romans 8:7). In Judah, also, this temper was beginning to show itself. Let it be warned. Israel would soon have liberty enough, and more than it cared for. "Now the Lord will feed them as a lamb in a large place." Intractableness springs from a false desire of freedom. It counts the yoke of God a bondage. The punishment would correspond. God would relieve the people of his yoke, but would relieve them at the same time of the care and protection they had enjoyed as his nation. Left, in a condition of dispersion, to realize their helplessness, they would learn to long for the yoke they had once despised.
II. BY ISRAEL'S OBDURACY. (Hosea 4:17) Obduracy is defined as that state which implies "a total disregard of Divine calls and warnings, and an insensibility to their importance" (Miller). This is the state to which intractableness tends. In Israel it had been already reached. "Ephraim is joined to his idols: let him alone."
1. The soul has its idols—its earthly objects, which it puts in the place of God.
2. There comes in time to be such a welding of the soul to the objects of its sinful pursuit, that further remonstrance is useless.
3. When this stage is reached, God "lets it alone." He ceases remonstrating. He abandons it to its sinful courses. Conscience is silent. The Spirit ceases to strive. These awful words, "Let it alone," are the soul's death-knell. Alter this there is no recovery. How solemn the warning to Judah—and to us!
III. BY ISRAEL'S MORAL DEGENERACY. (Hosea 4:18) Everything in the kingdom had become spoiled, degenerate, corrupt—like wine turned sour. The Hebrew word means literally, "to turn aside." Life, when turned aside from its right ends, speedily degenerates. So do gifts and blessings. The land is badly tilled; its fruits are wasted in gluttony and debauchery; health degenerates through the waste of the powers of life in profligacy; feasting sinks to mere animalism, etc. This was the state into which Israel had come. "Her rulers [shields] have loved, have loved, shame." They loved shame, and the print of shame was on them. The spectacle should deter Judah from following in their steps.
IV. BY ISRAEL'S EXPERIENCE OF THE FUTILITY OF TRUST IN IDOLS. (Hosea 4:19) Destruction was about to descend on the nation. The tempest would carry them away on its wings. A fate
Then it would be manifest how helpless their idols were to aid them. They would be ashamed of the sacrifices they had offered to them. The wicked will one day be driven out of their false confidences.—J. O.