Hosea 6:4 O Ephraim, what shall I do to you? O Judah, what shall I do to you? for your goodness is as a morning cloud… We need to feel the utter unsatisfactoriness of this fitful piety, Too often we look with complacency upon it. We argue thus: "I am not altogether bad; I have my times of good feeling, desire, and effort; the barren wilderness of my heart is relieved by green, blossoming shoots; the winter of my life has its snowdrops and violets, telling of the neighbourhood of golden seasons; I am comforted when I remember the recurrence of these days of gracious sentiment and aspiration' Such reasoning is entirely erroneous; there is no justification whatever -for intermittent goodness. Its sufficient condemnation is its unlikeness to God's goodness. Hosea points out the contrast. Our goodness is "the morning cloud," whilst the goodness of God "is prepared as the morning" which brightens to the perfect noon; our goodness is "as the early dew," whilst the goodness of God is "as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth," it drops fatness the year round. "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning." "Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness"; "Thy truth endureth for ever"; "His faithfulness faileth not." This is the crowning glory of God, — He abides from everlasting to everlasting in righteousness and love. The starry, steadfast firmament is supremely grand, but a meteor flash which startles the night counts little; the flowing river has a charm all its own, but the summer brook which dries whilst we look at it is only a disappointing fancy; the stately cedar sheltering successive generations appeals to the soul, but the gourd that springs in a night and perishes in one touches no deep chord. Righteousness in its essential nature is eternal, and therefore the righteousness of time and change is deeply perplexing and sad. (W. L. Watkinson.) Parallel Verses KJV: O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? O Judah, what shall I do unto thee? for your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away. |
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