Hosea 2:21-22 And it shall come to pass in that day, I will hear, said the LORD, I will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth;… 1. While the Lord's people are within time, they may read their own frailty in needing so many things to uphold even their outward man. 2. Outward mercies do so far follow on the covenant as the confederate may be free of fear and anxiety about them. Albeit the Lord do not always see it meet to heap plenty of corn and wine and oil upon His people, yet they have as much as, with godliness and contentment, may suffice. When they seek the best things, other things will certainly be added. 3. God is so tender a respecter of necessities that He hath an ear to hear the dumb cries of very insensible creatures in their need. 4. God's reconciled people are to read, not only God's love in their plenty, but that all the creation do, in their kind, with a good will, concur to serve him who is now at peace with his Maker. 5. The Lord sets a mark of excellency upon man, and especially upon His Church, in that so many things concur to serve them and provide for them. 6. Whatever it be that one creature affords unto another, or may be in the course of nature expected from it, yet every creature in itself is empty, and must be supplied by God before it satisfy any. 7. As the Lord is not to be tempted, but waited on in His established order for anything, so we are not to rest on any such order or course of nature, but to see God's hand in it, who establisheth and blesseth it for such ends. 8. The Lord's former sad dispositions towards His people will not hinder Him to change His dealing; but He will make His kindness so much the sweeter. (George Hutcheson.) Parallel Verses KJV: And it shall come to pass in that day, I will hear, saith the LORD, I will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth; |
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