“Thou hast destroyed thyself, but in Me is thine help.”

By C. H. Spurgeon

Hosea 13:1 –14

W HEN Ephraim spake trembling, he exalted himself in Israel; but when he offended in Baal, he died. (Humble walking before God brings honour, but proud and wilful sin is deadly. O for grace to maintain a lowly spirit before the Lord.)

2, 3  And now they sin more and more, and have made them molten images of their silver, and idols according to their own understanding, all of it the work of the craftsmen: they say of them, Let the men that sacrifice kiss the calves. Therefore they shall be as the morning cloud, and as the early dew that passeth away, as the chaff that is driven with the whirlwind out of the floor, and as the smoke out of the chimney. (If men will have transitory trusts they must have transitory joys. If we love gold our joy will melt; if we live for fame, which is only the breath of man, it will dissolve and be gone as a vapour. God alone provides us an enduring portion, yet how few confide in him!)

4  Yet I am the Lord thy God from the land of Egypt, and thou shalt know no god but me: for there is no saviour beside me. (Vainly do we look to our own works, or to false priests, Jesus alone can save.)

5  ¶ I did know thee in the wilderness, in the land of great drought. (The Lord has not failed us in distress. We have tried and proved his faithfulness in times of great need; let us, then, be faithful to him in return.)

6  According to their pasture, so were they filled; they were filled, and their heart was exalted; therefore have they forgotten me.

Oh, shameful ingratitude, the more mercies they enjoyed the more wickedly they behaved! Because God remembered them in his goodness they forgot him and grew proud.

7  Therefore I will be unto them as a lion: as a leopard by the way will I observe them :

8  I will meet them as a bear that is bereaved of her whelps , and will rend the caul of their heart, and there will I devour them like a lion: the wild beast shall tear them. (Our God is just, and terrible in vengeance. Sin provokes him, and though he is slow to anger, he is mighty to punish when the time of retribution is fully come.)

9  ¶ O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thine help. (This is the sum of the whole matter. Man ruins himself; God alone saves him. Damnation is all of sin; salvation is all of grace.)

10, 11  I will be thy king: where is any other that may save thee in all thy cities? and thy judges of whom thou saidst, Give me a king and princes? I gave thee a king in mine anger, and took him away in my wrath. (Saul was such a king: men often covet useless things.)

12  The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up; his sin is hid. (It is not forgotten, but laid away for future judgment, as men bind up their title deeds and place them in a secure place. All our sins will be remembered at the last great day, unless they are blotted out by the blood of Jesus.)

13  The sorrows of a travailing woman shall come upon him: he is an unwise son; for he should not stay long in the place of the breaking forth of children. (He is slow to be born again, he puts off conversion. This charge can be brought against many awakened sinners. Why halt ye between two opinions? Death and judgment do not tarry. Hasten, O sinner, to be wise.)

14  I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction: repentance shall be hid from mine eyes. (Though first to be applied to the national resurrection of Israel, this passage has a grand outlook towards the resurrection of the dead. Believing in this promise, we hate our sins, and knowing that they are pardoned, we meet death with joy, expecting to rise from the grave in the glorious image of the Redeemer.)

I knew thee when the world was waste,

And thou alone wast fair,

On thee my heart its fondness placed,

My soul reposed its care.

Can I forget the cloudy days

Of grief in which we met,

When in life's lone and friendless ways

Thou didst not me forget.

Can I forget those words of love,

So tender and so true,

With which, when thou must needs reprove,

Thou didst so comfort too?

O never, never let me choose

Freedom from thy control;

O never, never let me lose

Thy sunshine from my soul.

Spurgeon, C. H. (2009). The Interpreter: Spurgeon's Devotional Bible (386). Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.