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It is a happy thing that God's love always comes forth to meet man's longings. In the preceding verse Hosea had been urging the people to return to the Lord, but the exhortation would have been useless had he not been able to add the promise in the text. If the soul of man had to struggle unaided to the throne of God and to win a revelation for itself, the task would have been hopeless. But it is not so. We are not like the idolaters who, on Mount Carmel, cut themselves with knives and lancets, and cried again and again, "O Baal, hear us!" while from the brazen sky there came "no voice, nor any that answered; "but we speak to the Father who sees in secret, till the sweet sense of his pardoning love sinks deep into our hearts. The penitent is not like the heathen on pilgrimage to the sacred shrine, who sometimes measures the whole length of his journey by prostrations of his own body on the hot, dusty road, and only arrives at last before an idol too deaf to hear, too dumb to speak; but he resembles, as Christ tells us, the prodigal who starts on his way home, weary, ragged, and heart-sick, whose father sees him when a great way off, and has compassion on him, and runs to meet him, and falls on his neck and kisses him. Such is the thought stirred in our minds by the promise of the text following on the exhortation in the verse preceding it. Here we have a threefold assurance.

I. THE PROMISE OF NEW LIFE. (Ver. 2.) (For the different interpretations given to these words, see Exposition.) The obscurity is caused by the seeming definiteness of the words. Too much stress, however, must not be laid on the actual numbers, any more than in the following passages: Job 5:19; Proverbs 6:16; Amos 1:3. The main idea is that in a very short time, and that already determined in the counsel of God, there should come certain revival; and that this should be when to onlookers all seemed most hopeless, as to Mary and Martha when Lazarus had been in the grave "four days" already (John 11:6, 17, 39). No doubt all spiritual quickening finds its center in the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and so far the text has reference to that; but mainly to the revival of the spiritually dead, that they may live in God's sight, and walk all day in the light of his countenance. Point out the analogy, so often alluded to in the New Testament, between rising from the corruption of death, and the uplifting of the soul by God's Spirit above the degradation of sin, the darkness of despair, the hopelessness of doubt, etc. Indicate the first signs of such revival, that they may be gratefully welcomed. Insist on such verses as "If ye then be risen with Christ," etc. (Colossians 3:1; Colossians 2:12, 13; Ephesians 3:1). Show the fulfillment of the text in Christ's assurance: "I am the Resurrection, and the Life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live" (John 11:25, 26).

II. THE HOPE OF THE HIGHEST KNOWLEDGE. "Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord." Much and varied knowledge is eagerly sought for in our day. It is a new national ambition to be an "educated" people. With all its advantages, this is not without its perils. The strain of competitive examinations may divert from the culture of character. Knowledge of God's works may supersede knowledge of God. The skilful use of material and mechanical resources may lead to forgetfulness of spiritual forces - righteousness, truth, prayer, etc. It is the highest knowledge of which we are capable promised here.

1. This does not come instantaneously, as in the flash of light to Saul of Tarsus; but gradually, as in the three years of his waiting in Arabia. The knowledge that God is in Christ may be given suddenly; but after that revelation we are to "grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ."

2. In following on to know the Lord, the whole man must be absorbed in the pursuit. We learn a problem of Euclid by mere intellectual effort. We know the sweetness of human love by loving a child or friend. We have the enjoyment of appetite by ministering to it; and so forth. But as God is the Sum of all good, all our capacities, the perception of truth, the love of his Law, the submission of our will, the obedience of our life, must be absorbed in knowing him. The light which shows us Christ leads us to love him, and loving brings us more light. Knowing God's will prompts us to do it, so as to embody knowledge in action; and this, again, helps to deeper knowledge. "If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine." In obedience, as well as in prayer and thought, we "follow on to know the Lord;" and though as yet we only know in part, that which is perfect shall come, and "then shall we know."

III. THE CERTAINTY OF DIVINE INTERPOSITION. "His going forth is prepared as the morning" (literally, "is fixed as the morning dawn"). To those seeking and needing the Lord, he will reveal himself as certainly as the sun rises. Nothing that men can do is able to impede the breaking of the day. Imagine wicked men engaged in some conspiracy or burglary, hoping the darkness may last till their enterprise is complete. A streak el light comes over the eastern hills, the darkness fades, men will soon be stirring; yet how powerless the wrong-doers are to hinder the change. So resistlessly did the Lord appear for Israel in Egypt, for the Jews in exile, and for the soul oppressed by the powers of darkness. Show the application of this to the coming of God in Christ Jesus. The world was in gross darkness. Corruptions prevailed which are described by profane historians, and alluded to by Paul in his Epistle to Rome. When things were at their worst, the angels' song, which told of peace and good will, was heard by the shepherds, and soon the anthem rang over all the world. The great light which illumined the fields at Bethlehem was but the type of that light which now "lighteneth every man that cometh into the world." Christ's going forth from the Father was "prepared as the morning." Show frets the present condition of the world the need for some Divine interposition. Allude, for example, to the wars that prevail; to the standing armies, which are crushing Christendom by taxation, and weakening it by the withdrawal from productive labor of its manly strength; to the conflicts between capital and labor; to the unrest in the minds of those who are asking, "Is life worth living?" etc. Show how all these call for the fulfillment of the text. Because it will be fulfilled we may be hopeful of the future, and believe that the power of God will lie yet so manifest that it shall be as the dawn of a new day to a dark and saddened world. Already to the Church the summons is sent: "Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee." - A.R.

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KJV: After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight.

WEB: After two days he will revive us. On the third day he will raise us up, and we will live before him.