“Ο Israel, return unto the Lord thy God; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity.”—Hos. 14
These words were the utterances of the prophet of Jehovah to His ancient people, Israel, at a time when He was about to deliver them into captivity because of their long-continued rebellion and idolatry. When the people really repent, and return to Jehovah, and acknowledge their true Messiah, then this chapter, and many others, will have their gracious accomplishment. Before that, this same prophet informs us, that “the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim;” [in fact as they now are, without a false god or the true God], and “Afterward-shall the children of Israel return, and seek Jehovah their God, and David their king; and shall fear Jehovah and his goodness in the latter days.” (Chap. 3:4, 5.) The former of these verses is being accomplished at the present hour; for the latter verse to have its fulfillment we wait for the coming of the Lord, when, in a state of repentance, they will say, “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.”
The testimony of Hosea literally applies to the Jewish people, and every part of it shall yet have its accomplishment in all the magnificence and mercy of the prophetic utterances; but we shall use it now as illustrating the “ministry of reconciliation” now preached to every creature under heaven, the way in which a sinner is reconciled to God, and some of the blessed results.
The state of the people is remarkably described—they had fallen by their iniquity. By their sins they had destroyed themselves. In making molten images of silver, and idols, according to their own understanding, they had sinned “more and more.” Yet God did not give them up. The cry of the prophet was, “Ο Israel, return unto Jehovah thy God; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity.” And so an apostle, in unfolding the glad tidings to be preached to every creature, not only declares that all have sinned, and that all are under sin, and guilty before God, but still he cries, Return, Return—“be ye reconciled to God!” If sinners are saved, it can only be by having to do with God, the God of all grace.
The way of return is also clearly marked out. The prophet almost puts words into their mouths suitable for them to utter. He says, “Take unto you words, and turn to Jehovah; say unto him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously.” They were to approach God with confession of return! return! with their sins, and reckon upon Him who says, “Return,” to receive them graciously. And so now. It is sinners God saves, and saves them as sinners, and because they are sinners; “For God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” The prodigal’s way of return was, “I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight.” Peter’s confession was, “I am a sinful man, Ο Lord.” The centurion declared that he was not worthy that Christ should come under his roof. The Syrophenician woman took her place as a dog which looked for a crumb to fall from her Master’s table. The prophet, when brought into a deeper sense of the reality of having to do with a holy God, said, “Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips.” And when a soul considers that he must give account of himself to God, that he must, sooner or later, have to do with God, who knows all things, and is of purer eyes than to behold evil, he cannot but be conscious of how unfit he is for the presence of One who is so perfectly holy. The gospel is a message from God—the glad-tidings of the grace of God; it tells of God’s compassion and mercy to men in their sins, and calls upon them to return to God, to have to do with Him who is able and willing, and ready to save. The ministry of reconciliation is, “Be ye reconciled to God.”
If anything can subdue the enmity of the human heart, and give it confidence in God, whom he now so dreads, it is seeing that God provides the Savior in delivering His own Son for our offenses, to bear the judgment due to them in the death of the cross, and in virtue of the everlasting efficacy of His atoning work, is now sending far and wide the ministry of reconciliation, saying by His servants, “ we pray in Christ’s stead be ye reconciled to God.” Do you, reader, know what it is thus to have to do with God, to go before Him as a sinner confessing your sins, thus counting on God to take away all iniquity, and receive you graciously? Be assured there is no other way of matters being really made up between you and God, no possibility of being “reconciled to God” but “by the death of his Son;” for the death of Jesus is the only answer to the righteous claims of God for the sins of those who are saved.
How simple, and yet how magnificent, is this holy and gracious way of a sinner’s being reconciled to God! No demands, reader, are made on you. It is God who, in such infinite grace, has made the way, and, oh, at what a cost! It is God who sends the glad tidings of the way of reconciliation! It is God who has bidden His servants to cry, “In Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.” It is the grace of God which brings salvation! It was God who delivered up His own Son “for our offenses,” and was “raised again for our justification.” It is God who is the Justifier of all who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ! Have, then, to do with God. Return! Return! “Take with you words, and say, Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously;” and thus approaching God through the death of His Son, you will be pardoned, reconciled, and justified from all things. Oh, what a precious message is the “ministry of reconciliation!”
When a person has thus really had to do with God, he has necessarily renounced confidence in an arm of flesh. Though formerly, in time of difficulty and trial, he had made some visible helper his resource, he does so no longer, because he now knows the living God. He says, “Asshur shall not save us.” He has done also with his own contrivances, and abandoned his own ideas of escaping danger— “We will not flee upon horses.” Neither have the idols that men invent and worship any longer a hold upon him, for this acquaintance with the true God has delivered him from every false god: “Neither will we say any more to the works of our hands, Ye are our gods.” Yes, the death of the Son of God upon the cross has told him of the compassion, and grace, and goodness of “the only wise God,” so that he no longer doubts His love toward the helpless and needy soul that approaches Him through the death of His Son, “for in thee the fatherless findeth mercy.”
Now let us look at some of the results of thus being reconciled to God.
1. Peace and Assurance. Such have their sins forgiven, and are assured of it. “I will heal their backslidings” was the prophet’s word to Israel; while an apostle declares that, “being justified by faith, we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Peace with God is always founded on the blood. Hence we read, “Having made peace through the blood of his cross;” “Being now justified by his blood.” But assurance is communicated to us by God’s word; so that we are told that the sinner, by believing on the Lord Jesus, is justified from all things, has remission of sins, is born of God, has eternal life, is a child of God, and is also brought into other marvelous blessings and relationships. How can anyone who has been reconciled to God by the death of His Son doubt, then, that he has eternal life, present forgiveness of sins, &c? (See Acts 13:39; 10:439And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses. (Acts 13:39)
4And when he looked on him, he was afraid, and said, What is it, Lord? And he said unto him, Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God. (Acts 10:4)¬ John 5:11-1311He answered them, He that made me whole, the same said unto me, Take up thy bed, and walk. 12Then asked they him, What man is that which said unto thee, Take up thy bed, and walk? 13And he that was healed wist not who it was: for Jesus had conveyed himself away, a multitude being in that place. (John 5:11‑13); Gal. 3:2626For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:26).) Then the prophet assures the returning ones that all is well, that God is no longer angry with them, and that they are objects of His love. “I will heal their backslidings; I will love them freely; for mine anger is turned away from them” Let it never be forgotten that assurance of salvation, though founded on the finished work of Christ, is communicated to us always, by the Spirit, through the unalterable word of God.
2. Worship. The soul that has returned to God, and is reconciled to Him by the death of His Son, finds that his happiest moments are when consciously in His presence. Having received the Spirit of adoption, and having known that Jesus said concerning His own disciples, “I ascend unto my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God,” he has to do with God in the endearing relationship of Father. This bows our hearts in worship. We cannot but give thanks; we cannot but praise and adore our God as “the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort.” If the prophet declares that the returning ones of God’s earthly people will be constrained to say, “so will we render the calves of our lips,” how much more will His own children now worship the Father in spirit and in truth (for the Father seeketh such to worship Him), and as a heavenly people, exultingly cry out, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ!” (Eph. 1:33Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: (Ephesians 1:3).) Is it, therefore, any wonder that we are enjoined “By him to offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name”? (Heb. 13:1515By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name. (Hebrews 13:15).)
3. Objects of God’s blessing. Brought into the favor of God, and accepted in the Beloved, the believer should reckon on God’s blessing being upon him, and with him. It is for our consolation to know that the Father Himself loveth us, and that even as He loves Jesus. This, too, He would have us know and enjoy, for Jesus said to the Father, “I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it, that the love wherewith thou hast loved me maybe in them, and I in them.” If, then, the promise of Jehovah to returning Israelites is, “I will be as the dew unto Israel,” the power of fruitfulness and blessing, how much more may those who are “heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ,” count upon His richest and best consolations and blessings!
4. Growth. As new-born babes we are exhorted to desire the sincere milk of the word, that we may grow thereby; to grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. While our new-creation standing and acceptance in Christ always remain the same, there is progress in divine knowledge, and in the believer’s devotedness and walk. His faith may grow exceedingly, and his love abound. His service also may grow in extent from five talents to ten, and its quality be more according to the Lord’s mind. It is said of Israel, “he shall grow as the lily;” so, as we really grow in grace, we shall choose the lowly path, care less for the approval or disapproval of men, and more and more manifest the purity and spotlessness of the lily. We shall thus be more rooted and grounded in love, and by taking deeper root downward in the springs of divine grace and truth, we shall bear fruit upward, our branches will spread outward, so as to be able to offer protection and shelter to others. Then there will not be unevenness and crookedness in the Christians walk, his beauty will be as symmetrical as “the olive-tree,” and his savor of Christ be like the fragrance of “Lebanon.” He will grow, not as the oak, but as “the vine,” in the constant consciousness of weakness, and need of clinging to another for support, so that he dreads the idea of independence, and knows his utter helplessness if left for one moment to his own resources. More and more he learns the divinely-taught lesson, “From me is thy fruit found.” Happy indeed are those who have hearkened to the ministry of reconciliation, who have returned to God, and known what it is to be “reconciled to God by the death of His Son!”
Should these lines fall under the notice of any true believer who keenly feels the smart of having wandered from the Lord, and has been, perhaps, decoyed by Satan into bye-paths of sin and folly, we beseech such to listen to the words at the head of this paper: “Ο Israel, return unto the Lord thy God, for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity;” then the One against whom you have so sinned will graciously meet you on returning, saying, “I will heal your backsliding; I will love you freely.” Can anything be more encouraging? Hearken also to the gracious words of God by another prophet: “Return, thou backsliding Israel, saith the Lord, and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you; for I am merciful, saith the Lord.... only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the Lord thy God.” (Jer. 3:12, 1312Go and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, Return, thou backsliding Israel, saith the Lord; and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you: for I am merciful, saith the Lord, and I will not keep anger for ever. 13Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the Lord thy God, and hast scattered thy ways to the strangers under every green tree, and ye have not obeyed my voice, saith the Lord. (Jeremiah 3:12‑13).) May the words, too, of an aged apostle bow thine heart before God: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Return! Return! “Draw nigh to God” with full confession, and be assured that “he will draw nigh to you.” Return! Return!
Η. H. S.