God's method in teaching the great teachers of the world.
"I have also spoken by the prophets, and I have multiplied visions, and used similitudes, by the ministry of the prophets." God is the great Teacher of mankind. "Who teaches like him?" He teaches the best lessons, in the best way and for the best purpose; he teaches man through the works of nature, and through the best of men. God has always employed prophets in his great school for humanity. Into every age he has sent men above the average of the race—men gifted with high intellect, lofty genius, and special inspiration. They are evermore his prophets, and these he himself teaches; they are in his "normal school." He teaches them that they may teach others. The text indicates his method of teaching them.
I. BY VISIONS. He gives to those men inner revelations, unfolds to them spiritual realities, opens their spiritual eyes, and bids them look. What wonderful visions Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Paul, and the Apostle John had! They saw wonderful things; but what they saw was not with the outward eye, but with the eye of the soul. These visions serve to show three things.
1. The distinguishing glory of the human mind. What is that? It is a power to see the sensuously invisible, the universe that lies beyond the ken of mortal sight. What a universe came to the eye of the sightless bard of England! In some this visual organ is keener and more active than in others. He who has it in the highest extent is the poet, the prophet, emphatically the seer.
2. The accessibility of the human mind to God. Man can only address the mind through the senses; the Almighty can do it when all the senses are closed up, in the "visions of the night." He can take into it at his pleasure a whole universe, and bid it gaze on its objects and listen to its sounds.
3. The reality of spiritual things. The bodily eye does not see realities, but nacre forms and shadows. The soul alone can see the real, hence God brings the real into it. By visions I think the Almighty has ever taught the great thinkers of mankind, not only in ancient but in modern times. All the true discoveries of men of science, all the creations of sacred bards, all the flashes of the true evangel, are but visions from God. "In visions of the night."
II. BY SIMILITUDE. "And used similitudes." By this is meant, he showed them the invisible by the visible, the spiritual by the sensuous. He gave them parables. "Without a parable spake he not unto them." Hence the prophets spoke in parables; and the great Prophet of the world, who was like unto Moses. There are good reasons for this mode of teaching spiritual truth. Two may be mentioned.
1. It makes the spiritual more attractive. All men, whether they will or not, from their very bodily constitutions are vitally interested in material objects. They live in them and by them; and without direct impressions from God, we can scarcely conceive of spiritual truth being made clear to them but by their means.
2. It makes the material appear more Divine. Flowers, trees, streams, and stars, when they have become emblems to the soul of spiritual truth, become invested with a mystic charm. The picture that has hung in your room for years, and on which your eyes have rested a thousand times, becomes invested with a strange fascination after you have made the acquaintance and come to love the person whom it represents. Thank God for his parabolic method of teaching.—D.T.
HOMILIES BY J. ORR
Ho 11:12-12:1, Hosea 12:2
God faithful, his people unfaithful.
Probability seems against the rendering, "Judah yet ruleth with God, and is faithful with the All-Holy;" for, though a relative truth might be claimed for the first statement, the other references to Judah are in a very different strain (Hosea 4:15; Hosea 5:5, Hosea 5:10, Hosea 5:14; Hosea 6:4, Hosea 6:11; Hosea 8:14; Hosea 10:11), and in any case the second clause would be untrue to fact. "Faithful with God" is too glaringly at variance with what Isaiah says of the state of Judah at this time: "Their land is full of idols; they worship the work of their own hands" (Hosea 2:8). The other rendering, "Judah vacillates [roves about] with God, and with the faithful Holy One," better meets the conditions of the context. Ephraim's condition, however, was much worse than Judah's.
I. EPHRAIM'S DECEIT. Deceit had become as second nature to Ephraim.
1. He nourished himself upon it. "Ephraim feedeth on wind," i.e. on lies. Lies were his pabulum. He believed the false prophets who preached "peace" to him. He built himself up in his own counsels. He greedily listened to the voice of seducers.
2. He practiced it. Deceit had become part of his being. It corrupted his whole existence. Religion, politics, trade—all was penetrated by the spirit of lies. All partook of the character of unreality. There was:
3. He pursued it. "Feedeth on wind, and followeth after the east wind." Pursuing their ungodly aims, the people were as those chasing the scorching blast of the desert. Their hopes deceived them, and they were destroyed (cf. Hosea 13:15).
II. JUDAH'S INCONSTANCY. (Hosea 11:12) Judah vacillated with God. Ephraim sought to practice deceit on the Faithful One. Judah trifled with the Holy One. Religious inconstancy shows itself:
1. In the maintenance of a right theory of religion with numerous infidelities in practice. Judah maintained, in form and theory, the right order in religion. They had the temple, the Levitical priesthood, the Davidic line of kings, etc. They set up no calves, as Jeroboam had dune. Yet, with this show of orthodoxy, they tolerated many things that were not right, and idolatry was winked at when it ought to have been suppressed.
2. In the alternation of great fervors in religion with times of backsliding and coolness. Under good kings, Judah had frequently reformations of religion. At these times there seemed no bounds to the piety and fervor of the people. But the enthusiasm did not last. There was reaction and greater coldness than before.
3. In divided service. Judah had of late begun to swerve from the service of the one God. They imported idols. More and more the people were being drawn to idol-service. Their hearts vacillated between Jehovah and the false gods. Inconstancy as often takes this form as any other. The heart is ostensibly God's, but is really divided between God and the world.
III. JEHOVAH'S FAITHFULNESS. God is "the faithful Holy One" (Hosea 11:12). In virtue of his faithfulness and holiness, God:
1. Resented Ephraim's deceit. He would punish Jacob (verse 2).
2. Was displeased at Judah's inconstancy. He had "a controversy with Judah" (verse 2).
3. Nevertheless would not utterly destroy them. This point is implied in what follows.
4. In punishment would be strictly just. "According to their ways."—J.O.
HOMILIES BY J. ORR