Hosea 14:8 - Meaning and Application

Let us now hear the end of the matter.

I. Concerning Ephraim. He is spoken of and spoken to in Hosea 14:8. We see here, first, his repentance and reform. Ephraim will say, “What do I still have to do with idols?” Some read it as God reasoning with him: “What do I have in common with idols? What agreement can there be between me and idols? What fellowship is there between light and darkness, between Christ and Belial?” (2 Corinthians 6:14-15). If Ephraim will come into covenant with God, he must break off his alliance with idols.

As we usually read it, God promises to bring Ephraim to this very point and keep him there. Ephraim will say it, because God will put it in his heart to say it. God had already promised that Ephraim would no longer say to the work of his hands, “You are my gods” (Hosea 14:3). But God’s promises to us are a greater help for killing sin than our promises to him. So God himself stands surety for his servant’s good and puts this confession into his heart and mouth. Whatever good we ever say or do, it is he who works it in us.

Ephraim had already pledged not to call his idols his gods, but God goes further for him. He will resolve to have nothing more to do with them. He will put them away and reject them with full hatred. It is not enough that our lives turn from sin, our hearts must also turn against it.

See here the power of divine grace. Ephraim had been joined to his idols (Hosea 4:17). He was so fond of them that no one would have thought he could ever turn from them. Yet God will work such a change in him that he will hate them as much as he once loved them.

See also the benefit of disciplined suffering. Ephraim had suffered for his idolatry. It had brought one judgment after another on him, and at last this became the fruit, the removal of his sin (Isaiah 27:9).

See too the nature of repentance. It is a firm and settled resolve to have nothing more to do with sin. This is the language of the penitent: “I am ashamed that I ever had anything to do with sin. I have had enough of it. I hate it, and by God’s grace I will never deal with it again, not even with the things that lead to it.” You will say to your idol, “Go away” (Isaiah 30:22), and to the tempter, “Get behind me, Satan.”

Second, we see the gracious notice God takes of this repentance: “I have heard him and watched him.” Some read it, “I have heard and will look on him.” The God of heaven pays attention to the repentant thoughts and resolves of returning sinners. He desires their repentance, because he takes no pleasure in their ruin. He watches people (Job 33:27), and he listens and hears (Jeremiah 8:6). If there is any willingness to repent, he is pleased with it. When Ephraim laments himself before God, he is a dear son and a pleasant child (Jeremiah 31:20). God meets repentant sinners with mercy, as the father met the prodigal son.

God watched Ephraim to see whether he would bring forth fruit that matched his repentance, and whether he would remain in this good frame of heart. He watched him in order to do him good and comfort him according to his need.

Third, we see the mercy God planned for him, to give him comfort and help him keep his resolve. God will still be everything to him. Before, Israel was compared to a tree. Now God compares himself to one. He will be to his people like a green fir tree. Fir trees in that country were very large and thick, and they gave shelter from sun and rain. So God will be to all true converts both a delight and a defense. Under his protection and care they will live in safety and in peace. He will be either a sun and shield, or a shade and shield, as their need requires. They will sit under his shadow with delight (Song of Solomon 2:3). He will be this in every season (Isaiah 4:6).

He will also be like the root of a tree: “From me comes your fruit.” This may mean the fruit that comes to us, because we owe all our comfort to him. Or it may mean the fruit that comes from us, because we receive from him the grace and strength to do our duty. Whatever fruit of righteousness we bear, all the praise belongs to God, because he works in us both to will and to do what is good.

II. Concerning everyone who hears and reads the words of this prophecy (Hosea 14:9): “Who is wise? Let him understand these things.” Perhaps the prophet often ended his sermons with these words, and now he closes the whole book with them, since this book records some portions of the many sermons he preached.

Observe, first, the kind of people who profit from the truths he has given: “Who is wise and prudent? He will understand these things; he will know them.” Those who set themselves to understand and know these truths show that they are truly wise and prudent, and they will become wiser still. If anyone does not understand them, it is because he is foolish and unwise. Those who are wise in doing their duty, and prudent in practical religion, are most likely to know and understand the truths and providences of God, which are a mystery to others (John 7:17). The secret of the Lord is with those who fear him (Psalm 25:14). “Who is wise?” This shows a wish that readers and hearers would understand these things, and also a sorrow that so few do. Who has believed our report?

Second, observe the excellence of the things we are taught here. “The ways of the Lord are right,” and for that reason it is our wisdom and duty to know and understand them. The way of his commands, in which he tells us to walk, is right. It agrees with the rules of reason and justice, and it leads straight to everlasting happiness. The ways of God’s providence, in which he deals with us, are all right too. Nothing God does can be faulted, because he always does what is good. His judgments on the unrepentant and his kindness to the repentant are all right. However much people twist and misread them, God will finally be shown to be just and glorified in all of them. His ways are fair.

Third, observe the different way people respond to these truths. The right ways of God are, and will be, a source of life to the good: “The just shall walk in them.” They will follow God’s will in both his commands and his providence, and they will have the comfort of doing so. They will rightly understand God’s mind in both his word and his works. They will be satisfied with both, and will fit themselves to what God intends in each. The just will walk in these ways toward their great goal and will not miss it.

The right ways of God become to the wicked a smell of death leading to death. Transgressors will fall, not only in their own crooked ways, but even in the Lord’s right ways. Christ, who is a foundation stone to some, becomes to others a stone that makes them stumble and a rock that gives offense. What was meant to lead to life, through their misuse of it, becomes death to them.

God’s providences, when people do not use them well, harden them in sin and help bring about their ruin. How God reveals himself, both in the judgments he speaks and in the judgments he carries out, affects us according to the state of our hearts. What is received has its effect according to the quality of the one who receives it. The same sun softens wax and hardens clay.

Of all transgressors, the most dangerous falls are those of people who fall in the ways of God, who strike against the rock of ages, and who draw poison from the balm of Gilead. Let the sinners in Zion be afraid of this.