Hosea 14:2 Take with you words, and turn to the LORD: say to him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously… The Gospel itself has gone no further than the elements which constitute this closing chapter. The nation is addressed in its unity. "Return unto the Lord." Come back; do not any longer pursue the way of folly and the path of darkness; turn round; be converted, be healed, come home. That is an evangelical cry, that is the very passion and the very meaning of the Cross of Christ. "For thou hast fallen by thine iniquity." Man is not called to come down, but to come up. Thou hast fallen fiat upon the earth. This is a call from a fall. The fall is not to be argued into a man; the fall is an experience which must be confirmed by the consciousness of the heart itself. The experience of the heart about this matter of the fall is a varied, conflicting, tumultuous experience. "Take with you words." When men are in earnest their words are themselves. Leave all ritualism, and take with you yourselves speech of the heart, prayer of the soul, cry of the felt necessity. "Take away all iniquity." Here is confession, "Receive us graciously." Here is petition. "So will we render the calves of our lips." Our sacrifice shall be a living sacrifice. But can Israel so pray and so promise, and then repeat yesterday as if nothing had occurred in the night-time of penitence? Israel must be complete in confession, and complete in renunciation. A man must at some point say good-bye to his ruined self. If any man be in Christ he is a new creature. Now we come upon words never excelled by John or by Paul for sweep of thought and tenderness of pathos. "I will love them freely," literally, "I am impelled to love them." When God sees the returning prodigal, He sees more than the sin — He sees the sinner within the man, the man within the sinner, the God within the man. (Joseph Parker, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: Take with you words, and turn to the LORD: say unto him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously: so will we render the calves of our lips. |
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