Category Archives: Hosea

Richard Sibbes, The Backsliding Sinner, 3.3

13 Friday Aug 2021

Posted by in Hosea, Repentance, Richard Sibbes

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The previous post on this work is found here:

At this point, Sibbes makes two general observations about the nature of repentance itself. The first is that repentance takes place within the whole of our relationship to God: If we are truly repentant, that will be reflected by the expression of prayer and praise toward. And, conversely, if we do not repent and yet seek to enter into this intimate relationship with God, our prayer and praise will be not accepted. Second, he stress the particularness of repentance. 

But, to make way to these things, we must first observe two things for a preparative.

Doctrine. First, That reformation of life must be joined with prayer and praise. 

There was prayer before, and a promise of praise; but, as here, there must be joined reformation of their sin. 

This observation comes from the text of the passage. Hosea 14:1 contains the command to repent. Verse 2 provides, 

Take with you words and return to the LORD;

Say to him, Take away all iniquity

Accept what is good,

And we will pay with bulls the vows of our lips.

Verse 3 containes the details of the repentance (which will be discussed, below). Notice something here about the nature of his exegesis: He is not merely looking at the text of the passage and saying, this means this. He is thinking about the context of the passage: not merely to understand the words, but to understand the reason why these matters are placed together. The passage does not expressly state the doctrine proposed by Sibbes. But, by thinking carefully about the passage, Sibbes has seen what the passage does: It contains a command, but it also provides a model. 

And, so that his understanding does not become fanciful, he is able to anchor individual elements of the chain with other passages which are explicit about the relationship:

That it must be so, it appears, first, for prayer. It is said, ‘If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear my prayer,’ Ps. 66:18. And for praise, ‘The very sacrifice of the wicked (who reforms not his ways) is abominable,’ Prov. 15:8. So that, without reformation, prayer and praise is to no purpose. 

Therefore, it is brought here after a promise of praise. Lord, as we mean to praise thee, so we intend a thorough reformation of former sins, whereof we were guilty. We will renounce Asshur, and confidence in horses, idols, and the like. 

Notice how he does not delay application to the end of the sermon, but makes the application in his exegesis. Moreover, note the tone of the application: it is not bare command, but rather it is exhortation “let us.”

Therefore, let us, when we come to God with prayer and praise, think also of reforming what is amiss. Out with Achan, Josh. 7:19. If there be any dead fly, Eccles. 10:1, or Achan uncast out, prayer and praise is in vain. 

Achan coveted gold and sinned against God’s explicit command. Eccl. 10:1 is the source of the proverbial “fly in the ointment.” Our prayer or praised mixed with unrepentant sin is nauseous. He then proves this point by citing to two other passages which are consistent with his observation:

‘Will you steal, lie, commit adultery, swear falsely, and come and stand before me,’ saith the Lord, by the prophet Jeremiah, Jer. 7:9. Will you offer to pray to me, and praise me, living in these and these sins? No; God will abhor both that prayer and praise, where there is no reformation. ‘What hast thou to do to take my name in thy mouth, since thou hatest to be reformed, and hast cast my words behind thee, saith God,’ Ps. 50:16, where he pleads with the hypocrite for this audacious boldness in severing things conjoined by God. 

He returns to the original point in much the manner of a recapitulation which restates the original them but also makes use of the “development”.

Therefore, as we would not have our prayers turned back from heaven, which should bring a blessing upon all other things else: as we would not have our sacrifices abominable to God, labour to reform what is amiss, amend all, or else never think our lip-labour will prove anything but a lost labour without this reformation.

Here he makes an observation about the nature of repentance: In this he makes an interesting psychological observation. It is a common that you must repent of all sin. Sibbes unpacks what is so easily done: to reserve one sin:

A second thing, which I observe in general, before I come to the particulars, is,

Doctrine. That true repentance is, of the particular sin which we are most addicted to, and most guilty of.

The “particular” sin he takes directly from the text. If time permitted, we could tie these particular sins to their development throughout the Scripture. What strikes me at this moment is the degree to which these particular sins could be charged against contemporary Christians in N.A. There is an excessive trust in and reliance upon political means, various forms of power (on right and left). There is a commensurate lack of trust in the power of “normal means of grace,” the providence of God, the wisdom of God to the point that politics and power become idolatrous (and the idols were seen as means to obtain and expend supernatural power, which is often the way in which we view God as a charging station for our political position). 

The particular sin of this people, whom God so instructs here, was their confidence in Assyria, horses, and idols. 

Note the connection between the particular and the many (note also the structure of this paragraph proposition and illustration/application:

Now therefore repenting, they repent of the particular, main sins they were most guilty of; which being stricken down, all the lesser will be easy to conquer. As when Goliath himself was stricken down, all the host of the Philistines ran away, 1 Sam. 17:51. So when Goliath shall be slain in us, the reigning, ruling, domineering sin, the rest will easily be conquered.

Here, he develops the application of repenting of the particular:

Use. Therefore let us make an use of examination and trial of our repentance.

Stop and ask yourself, am I truly repentant of the particular sin(s) which most beset me? “If it be sound”: if you are truly repentant for the particular;

 If it be sound, it draws with it a reformation; as in general, so especially of our particular sins. As those confess and say, ‘Above all other things we have sinned in this, in asking a king,’ 1 Sam. 12:8. We were naught, and had offended God many ways before; but herein we have been exceeding sinful, in seeking another governor, being weary of God’s gracious government over us. 

True repentance of the particular sin will bring about a general reformation of the soul before God.  He now makes this point with a precise description and then an illustration:

So a gracious heart will say, I have been a wretch in all other things, but in this and that sin above all other. Thus it was with the woman of Samaria, when she was put in mind by Christ of her particular grand sin, that she had been a light woman, and had had many husbands, he whom she lived with now not being her husband, John 4:18. This discovery, when Christ touched the galled part, did so work upon her conscience that it occasioned a general repentance of all her other sins whatsoever. 

This exposing to us our particular sin is a great part of the work which the Spirit does when he brings conviction:

And, indeed, sound repentance of one main sin will draw with it all the rest. And, for the most part, when God brings any man home to him, he so carries our repentance, that, discovering unto us our sinfulness, he especially shews us our Delilah, Isaac, Herodias, our particular sin; which being cast out, we prevail easily against the rest. 

Repentance can actually be a dodge and a cover for sin: If X is my great sin, I will happily repent of Y that I may retain X.

As the charge was given by the king of Aram against Ahab, ‘Fight neither against great nor small, but only against the king of Israel,’ 2 Chron. 18:30; kill him, and then there will be an end of the battle. So let us not stand striking at this and that sin (which we are not so much tempted to), if we will indeed prove our repentance to be sound; but at that main sin which by nature, calling, or custom we are most prone unto. Repentance for this causes repentance for all the rest; as here the church saith, ‘Asshur shall not save us; we will not ride upon horses,’ &c.

Here is something interesting: The one who retains a sin may be in the place of putting a great show of work as a means of atonement or payment for the sin which is kept. 

It is a grand imposture, which carries many to hell; they will cherish themselves in some gross main sin, which pleases corrupt nature, and is advantageous to them; and by way of compensation with God, they will do many other things well, but leave a dead fly to mar all; whereas they should begin here especially. 

Thus much in general, which things premised, I come to the forenamed particulars. 

Richard Sibbes, The Backsliding Sinner, 1.2

30 Tuesday Mar 2021

Posted by in Hosea, Repentance, Richard Sibbes

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The structure of the remaining argument in this sermon runs as follows:

Proposition: You must stop before you can return. What then is it to stop?

A.  What are the basic elements of stopping?

1.  There are three general elements of stopping

a.  Examination

b.  Humiliation

c.  Resolution

2.  How do I know if I have begun the work of repentance?

a. What is the “frame” of your mind?

b. Has you conduct changed?

c.  With whom are you “associated”/

d. Do you treasure heavenly things? 

Proposition: Many fail in this task, because they do not turn toward God. 

A. Implied issue, why would someone turn to God

1. Some fail to return because they think God is being unjust toward them.

2. Some do not see the blessing of turning to God.

3. Some may fear that they will not gain the blessing of returning to God.

Proposition: Pray for Repentance

An objection answered.

Conclusion:

A. A rebuke for those who do not repent.

B. The blame of those who do not repent.

C. Consolation to those who will repent.

To make this stop, then (which is always before returning).

1. There must be examination and consideration whither our ways tend. 

What are the reasons to cease a life of sin (as Sibbes writes, “stopping considerations”)?

There be stopping considerations, which both waken a man and likewise put rubs in his way; if a man, upon examination, find his ways displeasing unto God, disagreeing from the rule, and consider what will be the end and issue of them (nothing but death and damnation), and withal consider of the day of judgment, the hour of death, the all-seeing eye of God, and the like. 

Sibbes here restates the “stopping considerations” by making reference to the arguments made earlier in Hosea: God has been good to Israel, despite their sin. God will also bring judgment on an erring Israel to bring it to repentance:

So the consideration of a man’s own ways, and of God’s ways towards him, partly when God meets him with goodness;—I have hitherto been a vile wretch, and God hath been good to me, and spared me;—and partly when God stops a wicked man’s ways with thorns, meets him with crosses and afflictions. These will work upon an ingenious* spirit, to make him have better thoughts and deeper considerations of true happiness, and the way unto it. God puts into the heart of a man, whom he intends to save, serious and sad considerations, what estate he is in, whither his course leads; and withal he lets them feel some displeasure of his, towards them, in those ways, by his ways towards them; whereupon they make a stop.

We must have the right affections to turn: a loathing of sin and a desire for reconciliation: 

2. There must be humiliation, with displeasure against ourselves, judging and taking revenge of ourselves, working and reflecting on our hearts, taking shame to ourselves for our ways and courses; and withal, there must concur some hope of mercy. For so long as there is hue and cry, as we say, after a traitor, he returns not, but flies still and hastes away; but offer a pardon, and he returneth. So, unless there be hope of pardon, to draw a man again to God, as the prodigal was moved to return by hope of mercy and favour from his father, Luke 15:18, we will not, we dare not else return.

We must the will to return:

3. There must be a resolution to overcome impediments. For when a man thinks or resolves to turn to God, Satan will stir up all his instruments, and labour to kill Christ in his infancy, and to quench good while it is in the purpose only. The dragon stood watching for the birth of the child, Rev. 12:4; so doth Satan observe the birth of every good resolution and purpose, so far as he can know them, to destroy them.

How will I know if I have ceased in sin? What is it to stop and return? Four points.

Use. Let it be thought of by us in all our distresses, and in whatsoever other evidences of God’s anger, whether this means have been taken up by us. It will be thus known.

In these things note that the fruit of repentance, the evidence and outworking of it is “good works”. The good works are not performed so that one may obtain pardon, but they come about as the natural outgrowth of true repentance. We could consider this under the parallel consideration that we are justified by faith in Christ not on the basis of works; but that our faith such faith leads necessarily to good works. Faith without works is dead.

[1.] Turning is a change of the posture of the body; so is this of the frame of the mind. By this we know a man is in a state of turning. The look of his intentions, purposes, the whole bent of his soul is set another way, even upon God; and his word is the star of direction towards which he bends all his thoughts.

[2.] His present actions, also, be contrary to his former. There is not only a change of the disposition of his soul, ‘Behold all things are become new;’ not some things, but all; not only ‘new,’ but with a ‘behold’ new, 2 Cor. 5:17. This change undoubtedly sheweth that there is a true conversion and unfeigned.

[3.] By our association. He that turns to God, turns presently to the company of God’s people. Together with the change of his nature and course of life, there is a change of company; that is, of such as we make choice of for amity and friendship, Isa. 11:10, seq. Other company, by reason of our callings, and occasionally, may be frequented.

This is an interesting point: If we are truly turned from sin that our relationship to all things will be different. While it is not cited here by Sibbes, the argument of Paul in Philippians three seems apt: I forget what is behind, and I press on to what lies ahead: my goal is beyond here and now.

[4.] It is a sign that one is not only turned, but hath gone backwards from sin a great way, when the things of heaven only are great things in his eyes. For, as the further a man goeth from a place, the lesser the things behind him seem, so the greater the things before, he being nearer to them. The more sublime and high thoughts a man hath of the ways of God, and the meaner thoughts of the world and worldly matters he esteemed so highly of in the days of his vanity, the more he is turned unto God.

Note the insistence: it is not beginning but ending the piligrim which is decisive: 

This returning is further enforced, saying, ‘Return unto the Lord thy God.’

It is very emphatical and significant in the original. Return, usque ad Jehovam, even to Jehovah, as though he should say, Do not only begin to return towards Jehovah, but so return as you never cease coming till you come to Jehovah.

‘Even unto the Lord thy God.’

Proposition: Many fail in this task, because they do not turn toward God. Four points: (a) the example of the prodigal son; (b) the example of Pentecost; (c ) the offer of Christ; and (d) we must be turned to Christ if we are ever to leave off sin.

It is not enough to make a stop, and forbear the practising of our former sins; but we must come home, even unto the Lord our God, to be pardoned and healed of him.

a. The prodigal son had been never a whit the better to see his sin and misery, and to be grieved for his wicked life past, unless he had come unto his father for pardon and comfort, Luke 15:20. 

b. And when those were pricked in their hearts at Peter’s sermon, asking Peter ‘what they should do?’ he exhorted them, ‘To repent, every one to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins, and so they should receive the Holy Ghost,’ Acts 2:38.

c. And when Christ invites all those who ‘are weary and heavy laden to come unto him,’ Mat. 11:28, he bids them not now be further humbled and grieved for their sins, but by faith to come unto him to be healed, and so they should find rest and peace to their souls. 

d. It is not sufficient for a wounded man to be sorry for his brawling and fighting, and to say, he will fight no more; but he must come to the surgeon to have his wounds stopped, dressed, and healed, or else it may cost him his life. So it is not enough to be humbled and grieved for sin, and to resolve against it. We shall relapse again, do what we can, unless we come under the wing of Christ, to be healed by his blood.

A. Implied issue, why would someone turn to God

Use. Many think they have repented, and are deceived upon this false ground. They are and have been grieved for their sins and offences; are determined to leave and forsake them, and that is all they do. They never lay hold on Christ, and come home to God.

‘For thou hast fallen by thine iniquity.’

Here divers points might be insisted on.

1. That where there is a falling into sin, there will be a falling into misery and judgment.

This is made good in the experience of all times, ages, persons, and states. Still the more sinful any were, the more fearful judgments fell upon them; and as soon as any man came into a sinful state, he entered into a declining state; as Jacob said of his son Reuben, who had defiled his bed, ‘Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel; because thou wentest up to thy father’s bed,’ Gen. 49:4. So sin still debaseth a man. So much sin, so much loss of excellency.

The use hereof is,

Some may not turn to Christ, because they do not believe God has been fair to them.

First, against those that complain of their troubles and miseries, as though God and men had dealt hardly with them; whereas their own ways, indeed, have brought all these evils upon them, Lam. 3:39. 

We are not adequate judges of God’s conduct. God is wiser than we are and always does right:

God is a sufficient, wise, and holy disposer and orderer of all the ways of men, and rewarder of good and evil doings. God being wise and just in his disposing of all things, it must needs follow, that it shall go well with those that are good; as the prophet speaks, ‘Say unto the just, that it shall be well with them, for the reward of their works shall be given them,’ Isa. 3:10. And if it fall out otherwise than well with men, the blame must be laid on their own sin. As the church confesseth, and therefore resolveth, ‘I will bear the indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned against him, until he plead my cause, and execute judgment for me; he will bring me forth in the light, and I shall see his righteousness,’ Micah 7:9. If Adam sin, he shall find a hell in a paradise. If Paul return, and return to God, he shall find a heaven in a dungeon.

Some do not repent, because they do not realize the damage of unrepentant sin.

Secondly, It should move us therefore to seek unto God by unfeigned repentance, to have our sins taken away and pardoned; or else, however we may change our plagues, yet they shall not be taken away; nay, we shall still, like Pharoah, change for the worst; who, though he had his judgments changed, yet sin, the cause, remaining, he was never a whit the better, but the worse, for changing, until his final ruin came.

‘The wages of sin is death,’ Rom. 6:23. Sin will cry till it hath its wages. Where iniquity is, there cannot but be falling into judgment. 

Therefore they are cruel to their own souls that walk in evil ways; for undoubtedly God will turn their own ways upon their own heads. 

We should not therefore envy any man, be he what he will, who goeth on in ill courses, seeing some judgment is owing him first or last, unless he stop the current of God’s wrath by repentance. God, in much mercy, hath set up a court in our hearts to this end, that, if we judge ourselves in this inferior court, we may escape, and not be brought up into the higher. 

If first they be judged rightly in the inferior court, then there needs no review. But otherwise, if we by repentance take not up the matter, sin must be judged somewhere, either in the tribunal of the heart and conscience, or else afterwards there must be a reckoning for it.

Some do not repent, because they do not believe that they will obtain the blessing of repentance.

Thirdly, Hence we learn, since the cause of every man’s misery is his own sin, that therefore all the power of the world, and of hell, cannot keep a man in misery, nor hinder him from comfort and happiness, if he will part with his sins by true and unfeigned repentance.

To prove this point he begins with the most notorious King of Judah: Manasseh. 

As we know, Manasseh, as soon as he put away sin, the Lord had mercy upon him, and turned his captivity, 2 Chron. 33:12, 13. So the people of Israel, in the Judges. Look how often they were humbled and returned to God, still he forgave them all their sins. As soon as they put away sin, God and they met again. So that, if we come to Christ by true repentance, neither sin nor punishment can cleave to us, Ps. 106:43, 44; 107:1, 9.

What could possibly cause someone to not see the goodness of God in repentance? Because sin makes one blind:

‘Thou hast fallen,’ &c. Fallen blindly, as it were. Thou couldst not see which way thou wentest, or to what end thy courses did tend. Therefore thou art come into misery before thou knowest where thou art. A sinner is blind, ‘The god of this world hath put out his eyes,’ 2 Cor. 4:4. They see not their way, nor foresee their success. The devil is ever for our falling. That we fall into sin, and then fall into misery, and so fall into despair, and into hell, this pleaseth him. ‘Cast thyself down,’ saith he to Christ, Mat. 4:6. ‘Down with it, down with it,’ saith Edom, Ps. 137:7. Hell is beneath. The devil drives all that way.

Proposition: Pray for Repentance

Use. Take heed of sin! take heed of blindness! Ponder the path of your feet! keep your thoughts heavenward! stop the beginnings, the first stumblings! pray to God to make our way plain before us, and not to lead us into temptation!

He derives a command to pray from the clause, “take words with you.”

‘Take with you words, and turn to the Lord: say unto him,’ &c., ver. 2.

These Israelites were but a rude people, and had not so good means to thrive in grace as Judah had. Therefore he prompts them here with such words as they might use to God in their returning. 

This instruction to pray is a gracious act of God:

‘Take with you words,’ whereby we see how gracious God is unto us in using such helps for our recovery, and pitying us more than we pity ourselves. Is not this a sufficient warrant and invitation to return, when the party offended, who is the superior, desires, entreats, and sues unto the offending, guilty inferior, to be reconciled?’ 2 Cor. 5:5.

God not merely gives instruction in prayer, but he also gives help to pray:

But this is not all. He further sheweth his willingness in teaching us, who are ignorant of the way, in what manner and with what expressions we should return to the Lord. He giveth us not only words, and tells us what we shall say, but also giveth his Spirit so effectually therewith, as that they shall not be lifeless and dead words, but ‘with unexpressible sighs and groans unto God,’ Rom. 8:26, who heareth the requests of his own Spirit. Christ likewise teacheth us how to pray. We have words dictated, and a spirit of prayer poured upon us; as if a great person should dictate and frame a petition for one who were afraid to speak unto him. Such is God’s graciousness; and so ready is he in Jesus Christ to receive sinners unto mercy.

Our prayer of repentance is our offering to God:

‘Take unto you words.’ None were to appear empty before the Lord at Jerusalem, but were to bring something. So it is with us. We must not appear empty before our God. If we can bring nothing else, let us bring words; yea, though broken words, yet if out of a broken and contrite heart, it will be a sacrifice acceptable.

Since God has prescribed the remedy of prayer, it must be effective:

This same taking of words or petitions, in all our troubles and afflictions, must needs be a special remedy, it being of God’s own prescription, who is so infinite in knowledge and skill. 

Having made these observations, he draws the following conclusion:

Whence we observe, that

They who would have help and comfort against all sins and sorrows, must come to God with words of prayer.

He gives five examples to prove the point: (a) Jonah, (b) the prodigal son, (c) Hezekiah, (d) Jehoshaphat, (e) Elijah

As we see in Jonah’s case, in a matchless distress, words were inforcive [That is, ‘prevailing, or invested with a power of enforcing.’]  and did him more good than all the world besides could. For after that he had been humbled, and prayed out of the whale’s belly, the whale was forced to cast him out again, Jonah 2:10. 

So the prodigal son being undone, having neither credit nor coin, but all in a manner against him, yet he had words left him: ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants,’ Luke 15:18, seq. After which, his father had compassion on him. 

(b) And good Hezekiah, being desperately sick of a desperate disease, yet when he set his faith a-work, and took with him words, which comfort only now was left unto him, we know how after he had turned his face towards the wall, and prayed with words, God not only healed him of that dangerous disease, but also wrought a great miracle for his sake, causing the sun to come back ten degrees, Isa. 38:2, 8.

(c) Thus, when life seemed impossible, yet words, prayers, and tears prevailed with God. Jehoshaphat, also, going to war with Ahab, against God’s commandment, and in the battle, being encompassed with enemies, yet had words with him ready, and after prayer found deliverance, 1 Kings 22:32. 

(d) Elijah, likewise, after a great drowth and famine, when rain had been three years wanting, and all in a manner out of frame for a long time, ‘took with him words,’ James 5:18; and God sent rain abundantly upon the earth again.

(e) The reason is, because prayer sets God on work; and God, who is able and willing to go through with his works, sets all the creatures on work, Hos. 2:21, 22. As we heard of Elijah, when he prayed for rain, the creatures were set a-work to effect it, 1 Kings 18:45, seq.

He then addresses an objection someone might have to the examples: The implied issue is “what if I repent too late?” I have heard evangelistic sermons which say there is a fit time of repentance, and that if you do not repent right now a future repentance may be ineffective. Sibbes rejects that argument: a true repentance is always timely.

Obj. Where it may be objected, Oh, but rain might come too late in that hot country, where all the roots and herbs might be withered and dried up in three years’ space.

Ans. Yet all was well again. The land brought forth her increase as formerly. For faithful prayer never comes too late, because God can never come too late. If our prayers come to him, we shall find him come to us. Jehoshaphat, we read, was in great distress when three kings came against him; yet when he went to God by unfeigned and hearty fasting and prayer, God heard him, fought for him, and destroyed all his enemies, 2 Chron. 20:3. seq. The Scripture sheweth, also, how after Hezekiah’s prayer against Sennacherib’s blasphemies and threatenings, the Lord sent forth his angel, and destroyed in one night a hundred fourscore and five thousand of the Assyrians, 2 Chron. 32:21, seq.

Conclusion: 

Use 1. This is, first, for reproof of those who, in their distresses, set their wit, wealth, friends, and all a-work, but never set God a-work, 

Ponder anew, what the Almighty can do, If with his love he befriend thee. Examples from Hezekiah and Asa:

as Hezekiah did in Sennacherib’s case. The first time he turned him off to his cost, with enduring a heavy taxation, and yet was never a whit the better for it, 2 Kings 18:15, seq.; for Sennacherib came shortly after and besieged Jerusalem, until Hezekiah had humbled himself and prayed; and then God chased all away and destroyed them. He had better have done so at first, and so saved his money and pains, too. 

The like weakness we have a proof of in Asa, who, when a greater army came against him of ten hundred thousand men, laid about him, prayed and trusted in God, and so was delivered, with the destruction of his enemies, 2 Chron. 14:11, yet in a lesser danger, 2 Chron. 16:2, against Baasha, king of Israel, distrusted God, and sent out the treasures of the house of God and of his own house unto Benhadad, king of Syria, to have help of him, by a diverting war against Baasha, king of Israel, which his plot, though it prospered, yet was he reproved by the prophet Hanani, and wars thenceforth denounced against him, 2 Chron. 16:7. This Asa, notwithstanding this experiment, afterwards sought unto the physician, before he sought unto God, 2 Chron. 16:12.

To note repent is blameworthy:

Use 2. Secondly. This blameth that barrenness and want of words to go unto God, which, for want of hearts, we often find in ourselves. It were a strange thing to see a wife have words enough for her maids and servants, and yet not to be able to speak to her husband. We all profess to be the spouse of Christ. What a strange thing, then, is it to be full when we speak to men, yet be so empty and want words to speak to him! 

Can’t we at least have the words of a beggar?

A beggar, we know, wants no words, nay, he aboundeth with variety of expressions; and what makes him thus fruitful in words? His necessity, and, in part, his hope of obtaining.

These two make beggars so earnest. So would it be with us. If we found sufficiently our great need of Christ, and therewith had hope, it would embolden us so to go to God in Christ, that we should not want words. But we want this hope, and the feeling of our necessities, which makes us so barren in prayer.

Prepare thyself, therefore, to prayer, by getting unto thee a true sense of thy need, acquaintance with God, and hope to obtain, and it will make thee fervent in prayer, and copious in thy requests.

Finally a consolation and encouragement: a prayer of true repentance will be heard and honored.

* That is, ‘ingenuous.’—G.

Thomas Boston, On the Instability of Human Goodness

04 Tuesday Feb 2020

Posted by in Biblical Counseling, Hosea, Thomas Boston, Uncategorized

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In August 1710, Thomas Boston preached a sermon entitled, “The Instability of Human Goodness” based upon the text of Hosea 6:4, “For your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away.” The text itself concerned the instability of the Israelites faced by the prophet Hosea. Boston takes the text, which first applied particularly to the Israelites as a common attribute of us humans. The fault of the Israelites was not unique to them:

Such is the instability of many in the good way of the Lord, that the goodness at which they sometimes arrive, passeth away as a morning cloud, and as the early dew.

He then begins to make observations on the good state of human beings. First, he notes that he often fails quickly after some good thing has come to them. The Israelites turned to the Golden Calf just after Mount Sinai. How quickly the disciples deserted Christ after the Last Supper. How quickly the disciples feared after the miracle of the loaves and fish.

Second, goodness often fails slowly,

The devil does not always act the part of a roaring lion when he intends to strip people of their attained goodness, but in this work advances with a soft pace. We may observe that men’s goodness ordinarily goes away by degrees, almost imperceptibly.

He goes on to note:

It is a piece of Satan’s policy to attack people with slender temptations at first, when he designs to rob them; for then they think they are strong enough for them, therefore they grapple with them on their own strength and are foiled. A small temptation will take off the chariot wheels of the soul. An unseasonable thought has sometimes proved a wide door, by which a good frame has escaped.

Third, goodness will fail when it is most needed:

As the heat of summer produces many insects which are not to be seen in the frost of winter; so the time of peace in the church produces many false friends who will never stand the shock of trouble for the gospel.

Why then does goodness fail? The primary reason he gives is that the one who fails truly does not know the Lord. He notes this in three ways: The Spirit does not dwell in them. They are not united to Christ. They may be frequent in a church, but that is not their real element.

He then addresses those who know the Lord, do show a loss of their goodness. And for this he gives four types.

First, they become discouraged; they will not seize heaven by force. They face a difficulty, a delay and they quit:

They cannot wait on at Christ’s gate. They know not what it is to have their appetite sharpened with disappointments; but as soon as they feel not that sweetness in religion which they imagined, they go directly to their old lusts; and find in them what they could not find in religion.

Second, they will not mortify their sin, but let it linger until it turns on them in force:

Another reason is, the entertaining of unmortified lusts, which are like the suckers that draw the sap from the tree and make it barren. It is hard to get wet wood to take fire, but harder to get it to keep in the fire, but hardest of all, to get a heart polluted with, and enslaved to vile affections, to retain any attained goodness. They that have many friends in the enemy’s camp will find their hands sore bound up in the day of battle. …That heart will not abide with God that has secret filthy lusts to nourish.

He then considers these two matters from a different angle; rather than consider them subjectively, he states them objectively: :The profits and pleasures of the world soon charm away men’s goodness.” He gives these in rather strking terms:

They are tenter hooks of the soul, the black devils that draw men from God, and from that sweetness that is in the enjoyment of him, and drive them like the demoniac among the tombs in the region of the dead. They are the wasps and flies that buzz about and sting the soul when it should rest in the bosom of God. And for the pleasures of the world, when they once get a hold of the heart, they quickly run away with it.

He gives a final statement which helps explain the whole, “Unwatchfulness over the heart and life. Our goodness is a tender bud that will easily be blasted if we do not take all possible care of it.” He turns this into a remarkable picture:

What wonder then, if in such a case our goodness goes away, when there is no watching; for such a soul is like a great fair, where some are going out, some entering, and those within are all in confusion.

He ends with an admonition to jealously protect what goodness we have. To this he provides practical direction:

Advices 1. Do not sit down contented with any measure that you have attained. Alas! little satisfies people in religion. He that does not exert himself to grow, will assuredly decay. “Do not think that you have already attained, or are already perfect; but follow after, if that you may apprehend that for which also you are apprehended of Christ Jesus.” Labour to make two talents of your one by industry. The fire will be extinguished by withholding fuel, as well as by throwing water upon it.

  1. Keep up a holy jealousy over your own hearts. You hear that the goodness of some is as the early cloud, and the morning dew, it passeth away. This should make us say, each for himself, Lord is it I? “He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool.” If you be saying with Hazael, “Am I a dog, that I should do this?” Look that you be not the dog, that will be among the first to do it.
  2. Put what you have in the Lord’s hand. Depend upon him and wait about his hand for more influences. For this purpose be much in prayer. You may come to get that in secret, which you have not got at the table.

Lastly, And what I say to one I say to all, watch. The time is short. Watch, and ere long you shall be in that place, where the gates are not shut by day, and there is no night there. But if any man draw back, the Lord’s Spirit will have no pleasure in him. Amen.

 

 

For you in you the orphan finds mercy

02 Tuesday Jul 2019

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Sometimes there is a question as to the importance knowing the Biblical languages. And, it is true that in most instances, the English text very good. But there allusions which cannot be translated; there are connotations which cannot be understood apart from knowledge of the original. Here is one such example:

Hosea 14:1–3(NASB95)

1  Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God,

For you have stumbled because of your iniquity.

2 Take words with you and return to the Lord.

Say to Him, “Take away all iniquity

And receive us graciously,

That we may present the fruit of our lips.

3 “Assyria will not save us,

We will not ride on horses;

Nor will we say again, ‘Our god,’

To the work of our hands;

For in You the orphan finds mercy.”

I want to consider that last line, “in you the orphan finds mercy.” The first clue is that the line seems a bit out of place. Israel is called too repentance. Israel repents by asking to be forgiven and received. Israel renounces reliance upon politics and human power (Assyria and horses), and idolatry (which is a bogus technology which seeks to harness some magical power in the universe). Then comes a line which seems out of place, “in you the orphan finds mercy.”

One could understand the line in terms of a superlative mercy: you are so merciful that even orphan are received by you. But there is actually something are more grounded in the text of prophecy.

In chapter one, God tells Hosea to marry a “wife of whoredom”. She then has a daughter named, “No Mercy” and a son named “Not My People.” God utterly rejects Israel for her adulterous idolatry. Here, in the final chapter that theme is repeated:

Hosea 14:4 (BHS/WIVU)

4   אֲשֶׁר־בְּךָ֖ יְרֻחַ֥ם יָתֽוֹם׃

The last two words need our attention. First the word

יְרֻחַ֥ם

The verb rhm means “to show” mercy. In this verse the verb is in a passive form so rather than show it means to receive mercy. He finds mercy. This is the same root word which was used in chapter one to name the daughter “No Mercy”:

Hosea 1:6(NASB95)

6 Then she conceived again and gave birth to a daughter. And the Lordsaid to him, “Name her Lo-ruhamah, for I will no longer have compassion on the house of Israel, that I would ever forgive them.

She was named Lo (No) Ruhamah (Mercy/compassion) because God will not show mercy on Israel any longer.

The son is named “Lo Ami”, not my people:

Hosea 1:9(NASB95)

9 And the Lordsaid, “Name him Lo-ammi, for you are not My people and I am not your God.”

The father of the child is denying his position as father: The child has a mother, but no father: No My People.  The word for orphan here means a child without a father:

orphan, the boy that has been made fatherless

Ludwig Koehler et al., The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1994–2000), 451.

m. an orphan, from the root יָתַם, Ex. 22:21, 23; Deu. 10:18; 14:29. Used of a child who is bereaved of his father only, Job 24:9.

Wilhelm Gesenius and Samuel Prideaux Tregelles, Gesenius’ Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament Scriptures (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2003), 376.

Israel was compared to a pair of children, No Mercy and Not My People. Here at the end of the book, when Israel finally comes to repentance, the people say that God shows mercy upon the child who has no father: which is precisely the description of Israel in chapter one.

The English translation is not transparent to this meaning. In chapter one, the translation is “compassion” which is appropriate and a valid translation; but in chapter 14 it is mercy. In both places it is the same Hebrew root at issue (whether a noun or verb).

Second, the word for “orphan” means a child without a father — which is precisely the child in chapter one: Not My People. His mother was known; it was his father who denied him.

Thus, the fatherless child — the very child rejected by God — will be shown mercy. This points forward to Christ upon the Cross:

Matthew 27:45–46 (NASB95)

45 Now from the sixth hour darkness fell upon all the land until the ninth hour.
46 About the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “ELI, ELI, LAMA SABACHTHANI?” that is, “MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME?”

The here in a mystery of which one dare not speak, there is the language of Fatherlessness and of a loss of mercy but rather an outpouring of wrath. And yet is this Son who receives mercy and has been vindicated by God:

Acts 2:32–35 (NASB95)

32 “This Jesus God raised up again, to which we are all witnesses.
33 “Therefore having been exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured forth this which you both see and hear.
34 “For it was not David who ascended into heaven, but he himself says:
‘THE LORD SAID TO MY LORD,
“SIT AT MY RIGHT HAND,
35 UNTIL I MAKE YOUR ENEMIES A FOOTSTOOL FOR YOUR FEET.” ’

Jesus is not abandoned and does receive mercy — and not merely mercy, but glory, honor and power. And this vindication then becomes the basis of God receiving the children without a father who have not received mercy:

1 Peter 2:7–10(NASB95)

7 This precious value, then, is for you who believe; but for those who disbelieve,

“The stone which the buildersrejected,

This became the very cornerstone,”

8 and,

“A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense”;

for they stumble because they are disobedient to the word, and to this doomthey were also appointed.

9 But you are a chosen race, aroyal priesthood, aholy nation, a people forGod’sown possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;

10 for you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

The orphan who finds mercy is Israel; but it is even more truly Christ who takes the place of Israel (remember Matthew and Hosea, out of Egypt I have called my son? there is a parallel there). And it is that work of Christ which then becomes redemption of all human beings (because Christ is also the stand in for that “son of God” Adam– Luke 3:38; who himself became the first child without a father at the Fall).

This letter phrase in Hosea draws together the entire book, but also picks up the strands of Christ’s work both in redeeming Israel and in redeeming humanity.

Hosea 3

07 Thursday Feb 2019

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These are notes on a Bible study for Hosea 3

Hosea 3

“The third chapter of Hosea is, in my judgment, the greatest chapter in the Bible, because it portrays the greatest story in the Bible – the death of the Lord Jesus Christ for his people.” James Boice

Text:

Hosea 3 (NASB95)

Chapter 3

1          Then the Lord said to me, “Go again, love a woman whois loved by herhusband, yet an adulteress, even as the Lord loves the sons of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love raisin cakes.”

2          So I bought her for myself for fifteen shekelsof silver and a homer and a half of barley.

3          Then I said to her, “You shall stay with me for many days. You shall not play the harlot, nor shall you have a man; so I will also be toward you.”

4          For the sons of Israel will remain for many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacredpillar and without ephod or household idols.

5          Afterward the sons of Israel will return and seek the Lord their God and David their king; and they will come trembling to the Lord and to His goodness in the last days.

 

Verse 1:

 

  1. Who is this woman?

 

  1. If it is Gomer

 

  1. What circumstances has Gomer found herself?

 

  1. How could she possibly be in a circumstance to “bought”?

 

  1. If she has left her husband and belonged to someone else, how do we think about the illegality of Hosea’s action? Deut. 24:1-4; Jer. 3:1

 

  1. Is this another description of Hos. 2:3?

 

  1. If it is another woman?

 

  1. Who is she?

 

  1. Is this a second wife?

 

  1. If this is a second wife, how does that make sense of the analogy to Israel and the Lord?

 

  1. Raisin Cakes:Apparently something to do with the idol worship, or possibly the benefit of worshiping the idols. There is nothing wrong with the raisin cakes per se. 2 Sam. 6:19.

 

III.       Translation issues:

 

  1. What does the “again” belong to?

 

  1. Does the Lord speak again?

 

  1. Does Hosea “go again”?

 

  1. The description of the woman.

 

  1. The NASB seems to follow the Targum (an ancient paraphrase). This translation is quite different from the other translations:

 

  1. Other translation possibilities:

 

  1. A woman loved by another
  2. A woman who is loved by her companion (the NASB seems to take companion/neighbor to equal “Husband”)
  3. A woman who is loved by another (other than her husband, the more common implication of the companion/neighbor). This also matches “she commits adultery”.
  4. A woman loved by evil (unlikely).
  5. A woman who loves evil LXX

 

 

  1. Observations

 

  1. The act of going after other gods, while it looked like freedom was actually an act of slavery.

 

  1. How does the person who is plunged into the sin view the sin? Do they see it as freedom?

 

  1. Even as the Lord loves

 

  1. The Lord’s love never varies. It is mentioned here in the midst of Israel’s complete rebellion.

 

  1. All of the Lord’s conduct toward Israel is thus consistent with his love of Israel: even the exile is consistent with the Lord’s love.

 

  1. Implications for us: if the Lord looks on Israel with love – even in the midst of her rebellion, how should we consider the Lord toward us?

 

  1. The Heart of Christ in Heaven (Thomas Goodwin).

 

  1. Christ’s restoration of Peter – contrast Judas’ despair and self-murder.

 

Verse 2

 

  1. The purchase:

 

  1. The verb “bought” implies haggle.

 

  1. What do we make of this strange price: money and barely?

 

  1. It appears to be less than 30 shekels (the price of a slave: Ex. 21:32/Lev. 27:4).

 

  1. Some commentators take it that this amounts to approximately 30 shekels.

 

  1. If that is the approximate price, was a slave still that price in Hosea’s time?

 

  1. There is a foreshadowing of Christ’s betrayal? Thirty shekels bargained for the redemption of the bride.

 

  1. Does this indicate some sort of scramble to find money? Did he use all of his silver and then find some grain?

 

  1. To whom is the money/grain paid?

 

  1. Note how bare a description this is: “So I bought”. It is a peculiarly spare description. Compare something like Abraham in Genesis 23.

 

Verse 3

 

  1. Stay with me

 

  1. The woman is kept from all her lovers.

 

  1. But she is also kept from her husband – and he is kept from her.

 

  1. He has cordoned her that previous sin: you shall not play the harlot.

 

  1. Hosea 2

 

  1. The prophecy of 2:6-7: a wall to keep her away from her lovers; she will not be able to pursue them..

 

Verse  4

 

  1. The symbol explained

 

  1. The woman is Israel

 

  1. “For the sons of Israel ….”

 

  1. The status of her confinement:

 

  1. She will lack her own government

 

  1. She will be not possess the implements of idolatrous worship

 

  1. She will also not be permitted the true worship (sacrifice and ephod). In particular, she will not know the Lord’s present will.

 

  1. This is Israel at present

 

  1. Even Jewish commentators see themselves as in the state of this woman

 

  1. This whole process is discussed in Romans 9-11

 

  1. How are we to consider ourselves in relationship to Israel?

 

  1. Romans 11:11-24

 

  1. Pay particular attention to Romans 11:22, Behold the kindness and severity of God.

 

Verse 5:

 

  1. Israel’s Restoration

 

  1. There is a pun in verses 4-5: remain (Israel will remain) and return (the sons of Israel will return) sound similar and have similar spelling: their remaining and returning are closely joined together.

 

  1. The two aims of the return

 

  1. They will return and seek the LORD

 

  1. As opposed to the false gods they have been seeking

 

  1. They will return and seek .. David their King

 

  1. This is a reference to the Messiah

 

  1. Hosea 1:11 says that Israel and Judah will have one leader

 

  1. How do we understand this dual return?

 

  1. Zech. 12:9

 

  1. This is God & Christ

 

  1. The manner of their return

 

  1. They will come trembling to the LORD

 

  1. This is a word which can refer to bodily shaking with either fear or joy. It is a very strong word.

 

(pāḥad). vb. to fear, dread, be in terror.Describes the experience of terror, likely with connotations of physical quaking in fear.

While the various verbs for “fear” in Hebrew are often used in similar ways, some contexts suggest pāḥadmay indicate a stronger form of fear than יָרֵא(yārēʾ). In Job, the use of the term suggests that the strong feeling has a physical effect like shaking or trembling (Job 3:25; 4:14; compare Jer 33:9). It is often used in reference to God’s judgment and describes the abject terror of those experiencing the wrath of God (Deut 28:66–67; Isa 19:16–17; 33:14; Mic 7:17). However, the greater intensity associated with pāḥadmay derive from its almost exclusive use in biblical poetry, where it occurs in parallel with many of the other roots for fear (with little besides context to guide making fine distinctions between the intensity or type of fear being described). Two other uses of pāḥadseem to associate it simply with strong emotional experience, such as joy at seeing the fulfillment of God’s promised salvation (Isa 60:5; Jer 33:9). Rarely the verb seems to describe the experience of awe or reverence before God (Hos 3:5).

פַּחַד(paḥad). n. masc. dread, terror.Refers to terrifying and crippling fear, perhaps accompanied by physical quaking or trembling.

The noun paḥadoccurs twice as often as the verb pāḥad, but as with the verb, many of the occurrences are in poetry. In the Song of Moses, paḥadfell on the nations of Canaan because of Yahweh’s awesome displays of power against the Egyptians (Exod 15:16). In Isaiah 2, the “terror (paḥad) of Yahweh” is mentioned three times (Isa 2:10, 19, 21; compare 1 Sam 11:7). At times, the noun indicates an object of terror or dread. In Jeremiah 48:43–44, “terror” is something to flee from. In Psalm 31:11, the psalmist describes himself as “a dread to my acquaintances.” Paḥadcan also indicate a proper reverence or awe of God. Jehoshaphat, during his reforms, encouraged the judges to have the “fear (paḥad) of Yawheh” (2 Chr 19:7) as they gave their judgments. This may also be the sense behind the use of פַחַד יִצְחָק(paḥad yiṣḥāq, “Fear of Isaac”) as another name for Yahweh (Gen 31:42, 53). The feminine form פַּחְדָּה(paḥdâ) is used once and has the sense of awe or reverence (Jer 2:19).[1]

 

  1. Deuteronomy 4:26–31 (NASB95)

26        I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that you will surely perish quickly from the land where you are going over the Jordan to possess it. You shall not live long on it, but will be utterly destroyed.

27        “The Lord will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the Lord drives you.

28        “There you will serve gods, the work of man’s hands, wood and stone, which neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell.

29        “But from there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find Himif you search for Him with all your heart and all your soul.

30        “When you are in distress and all these things have come upon you, in the latter days you will return to the Lord your God and listen to His voice.

31        “For the Lord your God is a compassionate God; He will not fail you nor destroy you nor forget the covenant with your fathers which He swore to them.

 

  1. They will turn to the goodness of the Lord

 

  1. The goodness of God

 

This is a major theme. Stephen Charnock’s The Existence of Attributes of God has 150 pages on this single aspect of God.

 

DOCTRINES

 

Doctrines concerning Israel

 

  1. God loves Israel: “Even as the Lord loves the sons of Israel”.

 

  1. God will restore Israel: “Afterwards the sons of Israel will return.” This is a major theme in the prophets. See, e.g. Zeph. 3:12-20.

 

  1. The Church should rejoice in the expectation of the restoration of Israel. Romans 11 in particular sounds this theme:

 

Romans 11:12 (NASB95)

12      Now if their transgression is riches for the world and their failure is riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their fulfillment be!

See also, Romans 11:33-36.

 

Doctrines Concerning Salvation

 

  1. The state of a human being outside of the redemption of God.

 

  1. God is sovereign in the redemption of human beings.

 

  1. The manner in which the redeemed should approach the Lord.

 

Doctrine of God

 

  1. The love of God.

 

  1. The patience of God.

 

  1. The goodness of God.

 

 

[1]Miles Custis, “Fear,”ed. Douglas Mangum et al., Lexham Theological Wordbook, Lexham Bible Reference Series (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2014).

Some introductory notes to a sermon on Hosea 2 (To Know God)

23 Wednesday Jan 2019

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To Know God

Hosea 2

The judgment and blessing of God are measured to His purpose. God not judge from a senseless rage, and He does not bless without purpose:

Psalm 104:24 (NASB95)

O Lord, how many are Your works!

In wisdom You have made them all;

“Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom of God!” Romans 11:33. His every decision, from the fall of the sparrow to the fall of an emperor are purposed by the unsearchable wisdom of God.

 

God has promised that all things work together for good: God will bring honey from the carcass of a lion (Judges 14:8). That all things work together for good is not some vague statement that I will get a better job when I have lost one; it is not my cancer will bring about a cure. God’s goodness does not track our desires.

 

Yet, the goodness of God always works the purpose of God. Think carefully of the promise:

Romans 8:28 (NASB95)

And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to Hispurpose.

There is the purpose of God embedded in the promise of God. What then is that purpose to which He calls? What is the end of this goodness of God? To be conformed to the image of His Son. Rom. 8:29. The goodness of God is shape, to form, to break and remake until the image of Christ is stamped upon the soul. The Son is so dear that the Father will see that image upon all the people called according to His purpose. What greater goodness could there be than to be made lovely to the Father?

In Colossians 3:10, Paul that the redeemed are being “being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him.” There is a true knowledge of God that works upon and forms the redeemed: that knowledge of God makes one new; it stamps the image upon the soul

God has a purpose a plan in in the life of the redeemed: God seeks to remake them into the image to which they were called. God in his goodness seeks to conform all the people of God to Son of God. And as we gaze upon the glory of the Son of God, we are transformed into that glory. 2 Cor. 3:18

Where then will we look to see this glory? How is the glory of the Lord displayed? Will certainly the creation. Ps. 19:1 But there is a place in which the glory of God shines more brightly than elsewhere: in the Son. Hebrews 1 tells us that while God spoke previously through the prophets, in these last days He has spoken in His Son. That Son is the radiance of the glory of God. There is true glory of God shining with unvarnished beauty and brilliance.

And where would we look to see this glory? We could dare to look to where the Son of God is seated at the right hand of majesty on high – there he dwells in unimagined brilliance and glory.  For it is in Jesus Christ that the glory of God is displayed to all creation.

But the glory of God will not be seen by earthlings grasping at heaven. There is a view of this glory – a view beyond all delight – but that view can only be seen when one has passed the strait gate, when one has walked the narrow way.  You can see the majesty of the world from the top of Mount Everest – but only when you have climbed the mountain. And you will see Christ in his beauty; but only when you have passed the narrow gate.

That narrow gate passes through the cross of Christ and the tomb of Christ: death comes before resurrection, and resurrection before glory.

We come to the knowledge of God through the knowledge of Christ. Think of that most famous of all passages in the Bible, John 3:16

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son ….

Do not pass over the verb: He gave. The love of the Father is seen in the given Son, the Son delivered over to death for us all; the Son delivered over to death for our sin. We cannot see the love and glory of God outside of that terrible sight of our sin hung upon Christ, our sin which he bore in His body on the tree.

It is the good purpose of God that we should know God. It is the good purpose of God that we should be conformed to the image of the Son. But that knowledge is found in a gold mine, deep in the dark; that glory is found in the Valley of Humiliation; that glory is found in passing through the Valley of the Shadow of Death.

But it is there, as the prophet Hosea says, that we will find the door of hope:

The Valley of Achor, the valley of trouble, the valley of judgment where the stones piled upon over Achan’s sin, there in the valley of Achor is the door of hope:

I will give her  — says the Lord –

The valley of Achor as a door of hope.

Hosea 2:15

Here look upon judgment, come look upon sin and its sad end, come here to the valley of Achor and I will open up a door of hope. Here in the narrow way, I will lead you out to the knowledge of God.

It is this passage from a knowledge of sin – a knowledge which Israel did not realize – that leads to a knowledge of God. That is the judgment and promise of this second chapter of Hosea

[the movement of the passage is from judgment, brought about because she does not know and has forgotten God to a blessing which is to know God and to say, You are my God! There is a movement of increasing despair of ourselves, which leads us finally to a knowledge of God]

{two quotes to be used later}

As the Spanish theologian Juan de Valdes (ca. 1509–1541) discovered, the only true knowledge of God is the knowledge of Christ, and this presupposes the experiences of the knowledge of sin through the law and the knowledge of grace through the gospel.156 Although it jolts what we might intuitively suppose, our experience not only of guilt but also of condemnation and despair is integral to knowing God. But of course there is no gospel at all if there is no redemption, and it is to this that Hosea now turns.

Duane A. Garrett, Hosea, Joel, vol. 19A, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1997), 87.

 

Lord, high and holy, meek and lowly,
Thou hast brought me to the valley of vision,
where I live in the depths but see thee in the heights;
hemmed in by mountains of sin I behold thy glory.
Lord, in the daytime stars can be seen from deepest wells,
and the deeper the wells the brighter thy stars shine;
Let me find thy light in my darkness,
thy life in my death,
thy joy in my sorrow,
thy grace in my sin,
thy riches in my poverty,
thy glory in my valley.

 

 

 

Some Further Notes on Hosea 2:14-15

11 Friday Jan 2019

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Hosea 2:14–15(ESV)

The Lord’s Mercy on Israel

14 “Therefore, behold, I will allure her,

and bring her into the wilderness,

and speak tenderly to her.

15  And there I will give her her vineyards

and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope.

And there she shall answer as in the days of her youth,

as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt.

This comes to the next question: How does God speak?

This question actually breaks into two question: First, how does God in the sense of mode: What manner of speaking does God use? Does God speak from mountain? Does God send a prophet? Does God send an angel?  The second question concerns justice: How does God overcome the injustice of Israel? How can God do this thing and redeem this bride?

 How Does God Overcome Justice?

To take the last question first, we need to consider the problem. God is our judge and the offended party. Justice must be done by both and for both.

If I am slighted by you, I can certainly overlook the wrong. We all do this every day; someone is brusque: someone bumps you carelessly, someone cuts you off on the freeway, someone answers discourteously. There are a thousand minor insults we all suffer and all overlook.

Now let us consider more serious wrongs: some does you a serious wrong: someone steals from you, causes you physical injury; someone slanders you and ruins your reputation, runs off your friends and takes your job. When someone causes a substantial injury, a substantial reconciliation must take place. A simple, “Sorry!” won’t restore what has been lost.

But let us consider something even more substantial. You have suffered a true and terrible criminal wrong. Someone has murdered or raped. The culprit has been apprehended. Trial has been conducted, and the culprit has confessed. The wrong is real, the wrongdoer has been caught, and the judge is called to execute the sentence.

Think of the evil which would result if the judge simply ignored the fault. It would be morally wrong, it would be truly evil if the judge refused to bring justice to bear.

We all rightly know the outrage we feel when we see a true monster go free. Justice demands justice. It is not mere emotion: it is an objective need that justice right what is wrong. If the judge refuses to do justice, the judge himself has become unjust. A judge who lets a murderer go free, is a judge who taken part in the murder; the judge has joined himself to the murderer.

Israel’s wrongs were astounding: the wrongs went back centuries. The Israelites had become no better than the Canaanites whom the Lord had driven from the land. They were as depraved, vicious, perverse as those whom God removed. God could not be God, God could not be just, could not uphold his own word if God were to simply ignore Israel’s evil.

And this is perhaps the element which is hardest for us to understand – and yet it is the element which displays the greatest evil – Israel rejected the worship of the true God. Israel knowingly and purposefully refused to believe, trust, thank the one who had created and sustained them, the one who fed and protected them.  As Paul says in Romans 1

Romans 1:21 (ESV)

21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

They were not thankful.

What is God to do? This is not a mere matter of God overlooking their wrong: they have obliterated their duties, their affection, their relationship with God. They have trampled upon the Law and ignored justice. God would himself be unjust God to simply forgo justice in the name of mercy. That would be no mercy, but would rather be another round of injustice.

How is God to settle the score of Israel’s injustice and so speak tenderly to her?

How Does God in Fact Speak?

God does in fact speak from a mountain (but not a flaming mountain). God does send angels. God does send prophets. God does speak tenderly. God does speak to Israel in the wilderness. God does speak.

But where and how?

First, God speaks:

John 1:1–14 (ESV)

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. 8 He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.

9 The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

 

God did send angels:

Luke 2:8–21 (ESV)

8 And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. 10 And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 12 And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,

14         “Glory to God in the highest,

and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”

15 When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.” 16 And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger.17 And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. 18 And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. 19 But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. 20 And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

21 And at the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.

 

God spoke from a mountain:

Matthew 5:1–2 (ESV)

5 Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him.

2 And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:

 

But not a flaming mountain:

Hebrews 12:18–24 (ESV)

18 For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest 19 and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them. 20 For they could not endure the order that was given, “If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.” 21 Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I tremble with fear.” 22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, 23 and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, 24 and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

 

God did send prophets:

Matthew 11:8–10 (ESV)

8 What then did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothing? Behold, those who wear soft clothing are in kings’ houses. 9 What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. 10 This is he of whom it is written,

“ ‘Behold, I send my messenger before your face,

who will prepare your way before you.’

 

Matthew 21:11 (ESV)

 

11 And the crowds said, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.”

 

God did speak to Israel in the wilderness:

Mark 1:1–4 (ESV)

1 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

2 As it is written in Isaiah the prophet,

“Behold, I send my messenger before your face,

who will prepare your way,

3           the voice of one crying in the wilderness:

‘Prepare the way of the Lord,

make his paths straight,’ ”

4 John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

 

God did speak tenderly:

Matthew 23:37–39 (ESV)

37 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! 38 See, your house is left to you desolate. 39 For I tell you, you will not see me again, until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’ ”

 

And he is speaking now:

Hebrews 12:25 (ESV)

25 See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven.

Why the Scripture Uses Poetry (Hosea 2:14-15)

10 Thursday Jan 2019

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Morning in the Vinyard

[Photograph by Michael Pardo]

Hosea 2:14–15 (ESV)

14    “Therefore, behold, I will allure her,

and bring her into the wilderness,

and speak tenderly to her.

15    And there I will give her her vineyards

and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope.

Notice the structure here:

Notice the structure here:

Speech:  allure

Land:  wilderness

Speech: speak tenderly

Land: Vineyard

[Valley of Achor]

The Scripture relies upon a variety of types of writing/speaking: there are stories, contracts, law codes, letters (public and personal), poems. The prophets seem particularly drawn to poety.

Why is this? Why does the Bible rely upon poetry? Poetry doesn’t mean symbols, images, rhythms, rhymes or patterns. Poetry certainly uses all those elements; but so do other forms of language. In fact all good writing and speaking must be cognizant all such elements (and more). I say this, because there is a bizarre belief that poetry means “symbolic” (this is seen in the strange argument that if Genesis 1 is poetry it somehow is non-literal; such an argument could only be made someone who knows little to nothing about poetry).  Poetry can be quite “literal” (read some Homer or Alexander Pope).

What poetry does in particular is to compress language with great deliberate intricacy. The purpose of poetry is both pleasure and to change how we think.

The pleasure of poetry’s compression is typically lost on contemporary readers: we are not a people who treasure words. We are a distinctly anti-rhetorical people. And so, I will pass over pleasure at this point.

But the compression and difficulty of poetry forces us to think along lines and in patterns which differ greatly from our “normal” life. Just the use of deliberate rhythm and sound makes poetry different from common speech.

This makes poetry especially useful for achieving one of the principle features of the Scripture: to change the way we think. We think wrongly – and poorly. We think up is down, evil is good. We desire those things which will destroy us; we ignore those things which will save us. We kill Christ and make a king of Herod. We count the rich man at his dinner in the best of positions; and ignore Lazarus at the gate.

And so the Scripture has been given not merely to inform us like a manual (yes there is much information in the Scripture), but to transform us:

Romans 12:2 (ESV)

2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

The patterns and complications of poetry make us stop and think slowly and carefully. We cannot breeze through poetry and still maintain a high degree of comprehension. Hebrew poetry emphasizes the complication of thought – often in ways which can be discerned only after puzzling upon a pair of lines.

While we tend to think of poetry as defined by verse (metrical writing often with rhyming), Hebrew poetry depends primarily upon the rhyming and dissonance of ideas. Yes, Hebrew does concern itself with sound and rhythm (for instance in the passage quoted above, the word “wilderness” sounds very similar to the word “speak” in the next line; there is a reason for this).

This fact of Hebrew poetry relying so heavily upon the concept as opposed to the end rhyme is a boon to translation. Translation of rhymed verse is very difficult to achieve in a second language; but the translation of ideas can be done without repeated the sound qualities of the original language. This is an instance of providence, that God chose the Hebrew language.

The patterns of ideas are meant to force us to compare and contrast the parts. We hold up two ideas for careful examination, noting how they compare and differ: in so doing, we learn both elements better.

Pick up any common object: a coffee mug, say. Describe it. Then choose a second cup and compare the two. You will easily learn more elements of each by means of the comparison than you would have noticed by considering one. This process is especially true when ideas are compared and contrasted.

Hosea purposefully sets up a contrast and comparison here. First there are two lines about speaking:

I will allure

I will speak tenderly

Then are two lines about the land and plants

Wilderness

Vineyards

The overall pattern is

Allure

In the wilderness

Speak tenderly

Give vineyards.

Let us consider first the two descriptions of speech:

Allure and speak tenderly.

The English translation “allure” does not quite capture the range of the Hebrew:

PIEL פִּתָּה.—(1) to persuade any one (πείθω), Jer. 20:7; especially in a bad sense, 1 Ki. 22:20, seq.; Jud. 14:15; 16:5; 2 Sam. 3:25; hence to entice, to seduce, Ex. 22:15; Prov. 1:10; 16:29.

(2) to deceive any one, to delude with words (Gr. ἀπατάω, to which Greek etymologists commonly assign an incorrect derivation), Psa. 78:36; Prov. 24:28, הֲפִתִּיתָ בִּשְׂפָתֶיךָ “wilt thou deceive with thy lips?” i.e. deceive not, see הֲ No. 1, a.

Wilhelm Gesenius and Samuel Prideaux Tregelles, Gesenius’ Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament Scriptures (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2003), 696. The word used to describe God’s speech to his wayward wife is a word which means something like entice, seduce, deceive. The Septuagint (the ancient translation of the Hebrew Bible into Greek) uses the word which means “lead into error” to translate the word pettah here.

That word alone is arresting: God is going to deceive his wife? But that word is then paired with the line “speak tenderly to” (literally speak upon her heart). The words are used to describe careful, tender speech between lovers. How then should we think about the manner in which God speaks to Israel?

Next we have speech in the connection with wilderness and cultivated plants of a garden (a vineyard). This harkens back to the wilderness of Exodus and the land of Canaan. It also harkens to the Garden of Eden and the wilderness outside the garden. It also reminds us of the difference in the world before and after Adam’s fall.

These allusions are coupled to God speaking. All of these instances are marked by the speech of God:

Deuteronomy 4:33 (ESV)

33 Did any people ever hear the voice of a god speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and still live?

Compare that to the idols which have been viciously seducing Israel to her harm:

Psalm 115:5 (ESV)

5    They [idols] have mouths, but do not speak;

eyes, but do not see.

Next: the idols whom Israel worshipped in the hope of obtaining luxuriant vineyards brought them to exile and wilderness (when in reality it has been the Lord):

Hosea 2:8–9 (ESV)

8    And she did not know

that it was I who gave her

the grain, the wine, and the oil,

and who lavished on her silver and gold,

which they used for Baal.

9    Therefore I will take back

my grain in its time,

and my wine in its season,

and I will take away my wool and my flax,

which were to cover her nakedness.

— This only begins to uncover the complications and allusions in the text. The allusions and complications are developed even further in reference to Achor and then the discussion of the wife’s response (which again brings about speech and a remembrance of the wilderness). Further speech by God brings about even greater degrees of transformation.

This then raises the question of precisely how is God going to “allure” and “speak tenderly”? Will it be speech from Mount Sinai again? That hardly sounds like a tender and ardent lover:

Hebrews 12:18–21 (ESV)

18 For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest 19 and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them. 20 For they could not endure the order that was given, “If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.” 21 Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I tremble with fear.”

How then does he speak? What does he say? You start to see how the layering and patterns of the language require careful thought and attention to understand. This is one reason why the prophets are so often skipped over and thought to be obscure. Yet the prophecy here is not obscure, it is only very dense.

Introduction to a Sermon on Hosea 2:14-23

31 Monday Dec 2018

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Look down at Hosea 2:14, consider that word

Therefore

The God of Israel having pronounced judgment upon his adulterous wife says

Therefore.

It is a word which should not be in this place. It is a word of miracle; it is a marvel, a wonderous act of God; a lightning bolt of grace from beyond the creation. It is a word which is inexplicable other than as the descent of grace and mercy, undeserved and unexpected.

We all know how stories work: there is a problem; there is a resolution. In Hosea, there is a problem; the wife is unfaithful. She has had the best of husbands; she can have no complaint.

Her husband found unlovely: she was a miserable slave in Egypt. She had nothing to offer. She was not seeking the Lord. Still her husband, faithful to a promise he had made hundreds of years before, sought out Israel. In an overwhelming display of power and majesty, the Lord rescued Israel from her taskmaster.

To gain Israel, God did what Israel could not do; God did what no force on earth could do. God destroyed the power of Egypt, the Lord broke the arm of the most powerful nation and ruler on the planet. God humiliated the gods of Egypt. Her husband having rescued her from Egypt prepared a place for his new bride. He drove out the nations and gave her a land flowing with milk and honey.

Her husband remained utterly faithful, unchanging in his goodness. He never varied from the least promise. Yet Israel proved herself again and again unfaithful. She showed herself unfaithful before she even entered the land. She danced about a golden calf just after she entered into covenant with the Lord of Heaven and Earth. It is as if she cheated on her husband on their wedding night.

And for hundreds of years she again and again strayed, denying her marriage, denying her covenant and chasing after gods who are no god. All the while, her maker, her creator and husband did her good.

Her adultery was inexplicable; yet a madness gripped Israel. Her children were monsters: she was married to the best of all husbands and yet claimed demons as the source of good.

And so, as we read in Hosea, God finally pronounces judgment upon his wicked bride. God condemns the wife whom he loved – unlovely as she was. A husband with whom she could find no fault.

God says, he will have no mercy upon her children; he will hedge up her way with thorns; he will put an end to her mirth; he will “punish her for the feats days of the Baals”. He will punish her, because she “forgot me, declares the LORD”.

This is the end, the resolution of the problem. The wife has rejected the marriage; the husband has sent her away. This is the end promised by God in the Covenant. If Israel rejects the Covenant, there will be a curse. And now the curse has come.

This is the end of the story: it is a sad end. The marriage which began in a rescue ends in a rejection. This is the end of the movie, the credits role.

But here we read the word

Therefore

There is no “therefore” at the end. But not just “therefore” – next is the word “behold”. There really is no good English word for the Hebrew. The Hebrew word is used to introduce a marvel, a miracle. But no one says, “Behold”. Maybe if one shouted “Look!” and pointed we could get the idea. The word means the next thing will be something no one could expect.

What wonder is here to observe?

Some Notes on Hosea 2:2-13

03 Monday Dec 2018

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Notes on Hosea 2:2-13. 

Verses 2-13 constitute an indictment and sentencing for the adulterous wife:

Hosea 2:2–13 (NASB95)

Introduction/Original Charge:

2 “Contend with your mother, contend,

The word “contend” can be used to introduce a formal legal charge. Here, it is used to introduce the charge against Israel for violating the covenant:

For she is not my wife, and I am not her husband;

This is the both the guilt and the sentence. The Lord is calling for a divorce. In the next couplet, he specifies the wrongdoing. But interestingly, he phrases it as a plea for her to stop:

And let her put away her harlotry from her face
And her adultery from between her breasts,

Her evil is written on her face. It is obvious to everyone. She plainly is experiencing no shame about her sin:

Proverbs 30:20 (NASB95)
20 This is the way of an adulterous woman:
She eats and wipes her mouth,
And says, “I have done no wrong.”

In verse 5, she will be explicitly condemned for acting “shamefully”.

A note on shame:

There are three ways to consider shame:
1. A shameful action
2. Being put to “shame”, that is at the mercy and control of another
3. The subjective experience of shame, which should cause one to stop one direction and take a new direction.

[Sometimes there are those who are sinned against and who experience shame and then have a subjective experience of shame which does not require repentance. For instance, someone who has been wrongfully treated (put to shame) may feel ashamed, even though they have done nothing wrong.]

The First Sentence and Accusation.

The prophet will go through three rounds of sentencing. Each section begins with a statement of the consequences which will befall the wife, followed by an explanation of why the sentence is warranted:

Here is the first accusation:

3 Or I will strip her naked
And expose her as on the day when she was born.
I will also make her like a wilderness,
Make her like desert land
And slay her with thirst.
4 “Also, I will have no compassion on her children,
Because they are children of harlotry. [Dt. 28:32]

Some notes on the sentence. There allusions here to both the exodus and Eden. Eden was a land of water and abundance. Adam and Eve were naked and not-ashamed. The exodus was through a howling wilderness which delivered the Israelites into a fertile well-watered land. Dt. 8:10, 32:10. There is a fundamental de-creation which takes place here. Israel is being cast out of the land and into the wilderness. Is. 41:18, etc.

Here is the first rationale/explanation: She thinks that the idols (her lovers) have provided her good things:

5 “For their mother has played the harlot;
She who conceived them has acted shamefully.
For she said, ‘I will go after my lovers,
Who give me my bread and my water,
My wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.’

There is nothing wrong with what she desires: These are all good things. The trouble here is two-fold: First, she wrongly thinks the idols have provided her prosperity. Second, she does not know that the Lord has given her all good things. These things were all promised to her in the Mosaic Covenant. Dt. 28

Consideration of idolatry: Idolatry as a wrongful means to obtain a good thing. Idols are not ultimate, but rather functional: one uses an idol to get something else. The Lord was considered as an idol: I want “x”, if the Lord won’t get it for me, I’ll go somewhere else. The application is obvious.
The Second Sentence and Accusation

6 “Therefore, behold, I will hedge up her way with thorns,
And I will build a wall against her so that she cannot find her paths.
7 “She will pursue her lovers, but she will not overtake them;
And she will seek them, but will not find them.

The Lord will stop her from pursuing her “lovers”. For the language of wall see Lam. 3:7-9.  The language of thorns recalls the curse of Genesis 3.

This sentence is no strictly punitive: rather it is meant to correct and change her. That is seen in the next couplet which comes in the middle of this section (thus giving it an emphasis):

Then she will say, ‘I will go back to my first husband,
For it was better for me then than now!’

Here is the first hint of hope, which will be developed at length in the next section.

Second Rationale:

8 “For she does not know that it was I who gave her the grain,
the new wine and the oil,
And lavished on her silver and gold,
Which they used for Baal.

The wife does not know. She is not an atheist, per se; rather, she doesn’t understand God. This is an instance of the “noetic effect of sin”, the effect sin has upon our understanding. James Boice says this is like an adulterous wife using her husband’s money to pay her lover.

Third Sentence and Accusation:

9 “Therefore, I will take back My grain at harvest time
And My new wine in its season.
I will also take away My wool and My flax
Given to cover her nakedness.

All things are the Lord’s even after he has given them to us. 1 Chron. 29:14. This begins an interesting rhetorical parallel. The prophet repeates and restates some theme from the first and second charges (and rationales). This first accusation in part three echoes the Second Rationale, above. This alternation increases the intensity of the charge and sureness of God’s judgment.

There is again the echo of Eden: God had provided a means to cover her shame, which she has misused.

10 “And then I will uncover her lewdness
In the sight of her lovers,
And no one will rescue her out of My hand.

The first sentence/accusation.

11 “I will also put an end to all her gaiety,
Her feasts, her new moons, her sabbaths
And all her festal assemblies.

The Second Sentence/Accusation

12 “I will destroy her vines and fig trees,

I will make her a wilderness: First Sentence/Accusation

Of which she said, ‘These are my wages
Which my lovers have given me.’
And I will make them a forest,
And the beasts of the field will devour them.

Second Sentence Accusation

13 “I will punish her for the days of the Baals
When she used to offer sacrifices to them
And adorn herself with her earrings and jewelry,

From the original charge.

Third Rationale:

And follow her lovers, so that she forgot Me,” declares the Lord.

Two things here: First, this is another noetic effect of sin. Second, this raises the theme of memory and forgetting. We are what we remember ourselves to be (imagine awakening with amnesia. Your thoughts would be where am I? Who am I?). The matter of forgetting and remembering is very important in Deuteronomy. See for example:

Deuteronomy 6:

4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

10 “And when the Lord your God brings you into the land that he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you—with great and good cities that you did not build, 11 and houses full of all good things that you did not fill, and cisterns that you did not dig, and vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant—and when you eat and are full, 12 then take care lest you forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

Deuteronomy 8:11–20 (ESV)
11 “Take care lest you forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes, which I command you today, 12 lest, when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and live in them, 13 and when your herds and flocks multiply and your silver and gold is multiplied and all that you have is multiplied, 14 then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, 15 who led you through the great and terrifying wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water, who brought you water out of the flinty rock, 16 who fed you in the wilderness with manna that your fathers did not know, that he might humble you and test you, to do you good in the end. 17 Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’ 18 You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day. 19 And if you forget the Lord your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, I solemnly warn you today that you shall surely perish. 20 Like the nations that the Lord makes to perish before you, so shall you perish, because you would not obey the voice of the Lord your God.

Since they have forgotten, they will be returned to the wilderness to remember.

The Anchor Bible commentary on Hosea (Friedman) noted the three accusations (She thought, she does not know, she forgot).