Gracious Attractions and Heavenly Banquetings
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"I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love—and I was to them as those who take off the yoke on their jaws—and I provided food for them." Hosea 11:4 Next Part Gracious Attractions and Heavenly Banquetings 2
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Let us endeavor to unravel the words before us. First, we see that there was a people to whom the words were applicable then, or they would have been spoken in vain, and that there is a people to whom the words are applicable now; for the Bible would be of no use to us in our day and generation if it were a mere record of the past, and if we had no share in its declarations or interest in its promises. If then we can but ascertain who the people were to whom the words were addressed then, it will much guide us in our attempts to discover to whom they are addressed now.
Let us see then, if we can, who the people were to whom the Lord originally addressed them. We read in the verse preceding our text, "I taught Ephraim also to go, taking them by their arms; but they knew not that I healed them." The words of our text then were in the first instance addressed to a certain people called Ephraim. Who was Ephraim? Let us see whether we can gather up a little of the meaning of the Holy Spirit by ascertaining from the word who Ephraim was. You will recollect that Ephraim was the second son of Joseph, placed by his father before Manasseh, adopted by him as one of the Patriarchs, and eventually formed, according to Jacob's prediction, the head of a large tribe, occupying one of the finest parts of Canaan, and stretching itself across the center of that glorious land, just above the portions of Benjamin and Judah.
But you will remember also that when Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, succeeded to his father's throne, the ten tribes, who are sometimes called Israel, revolted from his scepter, and that only two tribes, those of Judah and Benjamin, remained firm in their allegiance to the house of David. Now of these ten tribes Ephraim, as being the largest and most important, became the representative. But the next step taken by the house of Israel when it had broken off its allegiance from the house of David, was to choose a king of its own, Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who set up the golden calves in Dan and Bethel, to prevent the people going up to worship at Jerusalem. It was then to this revolting, rebellious people that Hosea was sent to prophesy for about sixty years; and this is the reason why in this book you find so much mention made of Ephraim and Israel—the one term being of the same import as the other, and representing alike the ten revolted tribes.
But there is a deeper meaning in the prophecies of Hosea than all this; for here we find an excellent illustration of the principle of interpretation which I laid down in the beginning of my discourse, that is, the connection that there ever is between the literal and spiritual meaning. For herein lies so much of the blessedness of the word of truth, that it is not a mere record of the past, but a word from God for the present, leveling itself at us and addressing itself to our hearts and consciences. Ephraim therefore stands as a representative, or typical character; for there are typical characters in the word of God, and Ephraim is one of these typical characters, representing a child of God in certain states.
Now let us put together a few hints that may cast a light upon Ephraim as a representative character, as a standing type of a child of God under these peculiar circumstances.
1. One leading feature—in fact, the leading feature of Ephraim was, that he had backslidden; and; in the case of the literal Ephraim, backslidden almost into utter apostasy. Setting up the golden calves in Dan and Bethel was an act not only of backsliding, but of apostasy from the worship of the true God at Jerusalem; and therefore one feature of Ephraim, as a typical representative, would be having a backsliding heart, or being a backslider from God. The literal Ephraim persevered in his idolatry. God therefore gave him up at last to his apostasy, for in about sixty years from the commencement of Hosea's prophesying, Shalmaneser, after a siege of three years, took Samaria, and carried Israel away captive into Media, whence they never returned. As a people, therefore, Ephraim was irreclaimable; but doubtless among them there were secret vessels of mercy, as the Lord told Elijah, at a previous period, that he had reserved unto himself seven thousand in Israel. To them, therefore, chiefly Hosea spoke, and to us through them.
2. But there is another mark of Ephraim as a representative character, bearing however much on the same point—"Ephraim is joined to idols—let him alone." (Hosea 4:17.) This was true literally of ancient Ephraim in the worship of the calves, and in Ahab's time of Baal. But it spiritually and experimentally describes that idolatry of the heart whereby, often before we are aware, we become ensnared and entangled with our idols. Against this John warns us, as almost his last words—"Little children, keep yourselves from idols." (1 John 5:21.)
3. Another mark of Ephraim, as a typical, representative character, is his ignorance of his own condition—"Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knows it not—yes, grey hairs are here and there upon him, yet he knows not." (Hosea 7:9.) He did not see how his strength was gone—devoured by the strangers whom he had fed and lodged, and who had well near eaten him up out of house and home. He was also becoming weak and infirm, and yet, like some foolish old men, tried to make himself out to be a young man. Every person of spiritual discernment could see the grey hairs sprinkled (as it is in the margin) upon him, and yet he was the last to see or acknowledge it himself.
4. He is said also to be "a cake not turned." (Hosea 7:8.) This figure is taken from the ancient custom of baking bread, or rather flat cakes, upon hot ashes, in which case sometimes, for lack of being properly turned, one part was almost burned to a cinder and the other not baked at all. He thus resembled the Laodiceans, of whom the Lord complained that they were neither hot nor cold—neither bread nor dough, neither one thing nor the other, not fit for the church or the world, God or the devil.
But it would take up a whole sermon merely to give you even a sketch of Ephraim as a typical character, which is not my intention, though I thought that a few hints might prepare our minds for a clearer understanding of the words before us. I shall therefore now come to my text, and show from it what God says he has done to and for Ephraim in times past, from which we may gather what God will do to Ephraim in times present. What God has done is what he still does and what he ever will do; for he is of one mind and none can turn him; his purposes will stand and he will fulfill all his good pleasure.
By way then of presenting the subject before your mind in a clear and simple manner, I shall speak,
First, of Ephraim's gracious attractions—"I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love."
Secondly, of Ephraim's divine liberation—"And I was to them as those who take off the yoke on their jaws."
Thirdly, of Ephraim's heavenly provision—"And I provided food for them."
I. Ephraim's GRACIOUS ATTRACTIONS. I have thus given names to my divisions, to fix them more clearly and fully upon your memory; but to speak more simply, God here, recording his dealings with Ephraim, says that he had done these three things for him—had drawn him, had liberated him, and had fed him. And this is what God will do to his Ephraims now, for those whom Ephraim typically and spiritually represents. He will draw them, he will liberate them, and he will feed them. If we can but find and feel, prove and realize our saving interest in these three heavenly blessings, what is better than being drawn into the bosom of God, being blessed with the sweet liberty of the gospel, and feeding upon the provision that God has spread before us in the gospel of his grace?
A. If you look at the verse preceding our text, you will find the Lord thus speaking—"I taught Ephraim also to go;" showing that Ephraim could not move a step except the Lord taught him to walk; and that the very power whereby he moved when he was drawn, the power whereby he spoke when the yoke was taken off his jaws, and the power whereby he fed when the provision was laid before him, was all of God. "I taught also Ephraim to go, taking them by their arms." Just as a mother takes her child and teaches it to walk, taking it by its arms and holding it up as it puts its little feet one before another, so does the Lord teach Ephraim to walk. Would not the child fall immediately that the mother took her arms away? But as held up it can move forward. And how kindly and patiently does the mother teach the child to walk. "Now put forth this foot, now that." And how the little thing looks up and back to its mother's face, feeling its dependence, and yet encouraged to step on at her gentle voice. So the Lord teaches Ephraim to walk, taking him firmly by his arms, holding him up by his almighty power, and making his strength perfect in his weakness.
B. But now observe the words—"I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love." The Holy Spirit here describes the gracious drawings whereby the soul is drawn into the very bosom of God; and it corresponds with what we read in Hosea 2:14. "Therefore behold I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her." You will observe that in these gracious attractions, the Lord speaks of two ways in which he puts forth this attractive power, which I shall consider each in its place. "I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love." These are the two instruments, so to speak, whereby God draws into his bosom the objects of his eternal love—"The cords of a man, and the bands of love." The Scriptures speak elsewhere of this drawing; for instance, "I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore, with loving-kindness have I drawn you." (Jer. 31:3.) Again, the Lord says, "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me." (John 12:32.) So we find the spouse in the Canticles breathing forth her prayerful desire—"Draw me, we will run after you." (Song Sol. 1:4.)
But in the two passages which I just quoted, "I have loved you with an everlasting love, therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn you;" and "I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me"—we see the foundation, or rather the FOUNDATIONS of this gracious attraction. The first foundation is the everlasting love of God, the love with which he loved the Church from all eternity, and gave his dear Son to redeem her by his precious blood. We have the same grand and glorious truth intimated in our text, in the expression "bands of love;" for these bands of love not only signify the love which God sheds abroad in the heart by the Holy Spirit, whereby he draws, and, as it were, binds the soul unto himself; but the bands of his own everlasting love, whereby he has bound himself in the bonds of an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure. And as this is the foundation we may look at this first.
Now if you or I have ever felt the power of God in our soul; if we have ever experienced any drawings of our heart Godwards; if we have ever realized any strength, any ability, any willingness to come to the throne of grace, to pour out our hearts before God, and have had any desires, cries, sighs, longings, petitions drawn up out of our inmost spirit which have entered the ears of the Lord Almighty—the whole has sprung from God having loved us with an everlasting love. There never would have been a desire in our soul Godwards; there never would have been a spiritual sigh or cry put into our heart; there never would have been any longing for a manifestation of the love of God to our soul, unless he had loved us with an everlasting love; for these are the drawings of his grace. And what is grace but a stream from the eternal fountain of love?
But there is another foundation of being drawn, that is, the cross of Christ. "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me." These drawings of the soul whereby it is drawn unto God, are "the cords of a man," spoken of in our text. I think we shall find something very expressive, as very suitable in the words, for the Holy Spirit here seems to point our attention to the manhood of Christ, and direct our views to the man Christ Jesus, the Mediator between God and men.
C. By "the cords of a man," I understand, then, first, the attractions of the humanity of the Lord Jesus, as made known to our soul by a divine power. God is too terrible in majesty for us to approach him without of a Mediator. There can be no communion between a God of such resplendent majesty, such inflexible justice, and such immaculate purity, and us defiled worms of earth, on the mere footing of Creator and creature, Sovereign and subject, Judge and criminal. There is no approach unto God, so as to plead our cause before him, or lay any petition at his feet, except through a Mediator of his own providing, and that Mediator God and man in one Person, the arbitrator of whom Job speaks, that can lay his hand upon us both. When then we have a view by faith of the sacred humanity of Jesus, and venture into the presence of God with a believing view of the God-Man at the right hand of the Father, as drawn to the throne of grace by faith in him as a Mediator, we are drawn with cords of a man.
But now take the words in another sense, which they will well bear—When God draws his people near unto himself, it is not done in a mechanical way. They are drawn not with cords of iron, but with the cords of a man; the idea being of something feeling, human, tender, touching; not as if God laid an iron arm upon his people to drag them to his bosom, whether they wished to come or not. This would not be grace nor the work of the Spirit upon the heart. God does not so act in a way of mechanical force. We therefore read, "Your people shall be willing in the day of your power." (Psalm 110:3.) He touches their heart with his gracious finger, like the troop of men whom he thus inclined to follow Saul (1 Sam.10:26); he communicates to their soul both faith and feeling—he melts, softens, and humbles their heart by a sense of his goodness and mercy—for it his goodness, as experimentally felt and realized, which leads to repentance. (Rom. 2:4.) These are "cords of a man," because they address themselves to our tenderest feelings, and entwine round our inmost spirit, so as to draw us near unto God, with all that sacred tenderness, all that sweet affection, all that loving desire, and all those gracious influences, whereby we are attracted, so to speak, unto the very bosom of God, as making himself known to us in the Person and work of his dear Son.
If you have ever felt any secret and sacred drawing of your soul upward to heaven, it was not compulsion, not violence, not a mechanical constraint, but an arm of pity and compassion let down into your very heart, which, touching your inmost spirit, drew it up into the bosom of God. It was some such gracious touch as that spoken of in the Song, "My beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door, and my affections were moved for him." (Song Sol. 5:4.) It was some view of his goodness, mercy, and love in the face of a Mediator, with some dropping into your spirit of his pity and compassion towards you, which softened, broke, and melted your heart. And under these gracious attractions, these cords of a man, the heart was drawn away from mount Sinai to mount Zion; from the terror and confusion, the smoke and bondage which the law creates, into the light, life, and liberty of the glorious gospel, so as to feel the warm beams of the Sun of Righteousness with the droppings of the rain and dew from heaven, producing a softness of heart and a melting of spirit. You were not driven onward by being flogged and scourged, but blessedly drawn with the cords of a man, which seemed to touch every tender feeling and enter into the very depths of your spirit. And why is this?
Because it is as man that our blessed Lord is the Mediator—it is the man Christ Jesus, the man who groaned and sighed in the garden, the man that hung upon the cross, the man who lay in the sepulcher, who is now the man at the right hand of the Father, and yet God-Man; for it is through his humanity that we draw near unto God. As his blood, which was the blood of humanity; and as his sufferings, which were the sufferings of the humanity; and as his sacrifice, which was the sacrifice of the humanity; and as his death, which was the death of the humanity; as these are opened up with divine power, they form, so to speak, a medium whereby we may draw near unto God, without terror, without alarm, because God in Christ manifests himself as altogether love.
D. But with the cords of a man there come "the bands of love." When the Lord is pleased to let down a sense of his love into the heart, he puts bands round the soul, and by these cords of a man and these bands of love he draws it unto himself. But what does he draw it FROM? We have shown what he draws it unto—even to himself; but let us now see what he draws it from. Where then does he find Ephraim? A poor, backsliding, idolatrous, grey haired sinner; peevish, fretful, rebellious, prone to everything base and vile. But if he is to be drawn unto and into the very bosom of God through the Mediator, he must be drawn out of the state and place in which the Lord finds him, out of a worldly spirit into which he may have gotten, out of idolatrous affections in which he may be entangled, out of a sad course of backsliding, if not open, yet secret, in which he may have been walking; out of carnality, pride, covetousness, and self-righteousness, and a host of evils that those best know, who best know their hearts. Out of these he draws them with the cords of a man and the bands of love.
But let us look, for it is time to do so, a little more closely at this point, and consider out of what evils they are brought; for the grace of God is not a dead, inoperative principle, but productive of living fruit. The few hints which I threw out at the beginning of my discourse to illustrate the character of Ephraim may serve to show us from what the cords of a man and the bands of love bring him.
1. You will recollect that I pointed out the leading feature of Ephraim to be that he was a backslider. This in fact comprehends the whole of his case—for if we backslide it is sure to be into some evil, if not all evil. Ephraim then is drawn out of his backsliding state by "the cords of a man." How tenderly, how graciously, how compassionately does the Lord speak to backsliding Israel—"Go and proclaim these words towards the north, and say, Return, O backsliding Israel, says the Lord; and I will not cause my anger to fall upon you—for I am merciful, says the Lord, and I will not keep anger forever." (Jer. 3:12.) "I am merciful, says the Lord." There are the cords of a man; for what mercy is there except through the man Christ Jesus? How the words appeal to our tenderest feelings! And now for the "bands of love," "Turn, O backsliding children, says the Lord; for I am married unto you—and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion." (Jer. 3:14.) "I am married unto you." There are the strong bands of eternal espousals. During all his backslidings the tender care of the man and the unchangeable love of the bridegroom had been watching over Ephraim; and the time is now come to draw him out of all his wanderings and departings from the living God.
2. But I also intimated that another feature in Ephraim's character was that he was joined to idols. This was true in the literal Ephraim, in his worshiping the golden calves, which was Israel's national sin, and the damning spot which ever cleaved to the name and memory of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, as the guilty author, until the Lord cut it off and destroyed it from the face of the earth. But it is true also of the spiritual Ephraim; for the love and worship of idols is both the cause and consequence of all backsliding. Now nothing but a more spiritual worship can dethrone the worship of an idol; and nothing but a stronger love can overpower the love of an idol—for we must love something; and if we do not love the God and Father of the Lord Jesus, we shall love some idol-god of our own. Here then we see how the cords of a man and the bands of love draw the soul out of its idolatry.
3. But Ephraim also was "a cake not turned," neither hot nor cold, neither bread nor dough. And is not that just the character of a backslider, fit neither for the church nor the world—a burden to himself and a plague to others? But how is he to be brought out of this Laodicean state? By the purging out of the old leaven and being made a new lump—made into a fresh cake, put again upon the coals. (1 Cor. 5:7.) The cords of a man and the bands of love must draw him out of this 'mongrel state', this half-burned, half-baked, useless condition, in which he brings no glory to God nor good to his people.
4. The last point which I shall touch is the grey hairs that were being sprinkled upon his head and he knew it not. Premature old age, possessing the iniquities of his youth, which overtake and press him hard with guilt and shame, was a character stamped upon Ephraim. But how is his youth to be renewed like the eagle's? How shall his flesh, as we read in the book of Job, be fresher than a child's, and how shall he return to the days of his youth? Elihu shall answer—"He shall pray unto God, and he will be favorable unto him." These are "the cords of a man and the bands of love." "And he shall see his face with joy." There is the fruit. (Job 33:25, 26.)
But having shown how he is drawn, and out of what he is drawn, let us now see in what way he comes. Jeremiah shall tell us—"They shall come weeping, and with supplications will I lead them—I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters in a straight way, wherein they shall not stumble—for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn." (Jer. 31:9.) Then they come with weeping and supplications, self-loathing, self-abhorrence, confession of sin, hating themselves, and hating the evils with which they have been entangled, for their language is—"I hate the sins which made you mourn, and drove you from my bosom."
And yet this kind and most merciful God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ keeps drawing them on with the cords of a man and the bands of love. For now that they are awakened to see what they were and where they have been, a host of fears fills their minds. Unbelief strongly resists, and musters up every argument even against the cords which are drawing and the love which is attracting them. But the Lord still goes on drawing them out of their unbelief, their infidelity, their despondency, their gloomy doubts and fears, and almost at times the very affections of despair. He has a firm hold of them and will never let them go until he has drawn them, not only to his feet, but fairly and fully into his very bosom. As the riches of his tender mercy thus lovingly and effectually draw them on, am I wrong in calling these cords of a man and bands of love gracious attractions?