Israel among the Gentiles.
We have here the Nemesis of a false desire of independence.
I. MINGLING WITH THE WORLD LEADS TO ABSORPTION BY THE WORLD. (Hosea 8:8) It was the complaint against Ephraim that he had mixed himself among the people (Hosea 7:8). He was not content to remain separate, as God had ordained. He must have his freedom (cf. Luke 15:11-13). We now see the end of this: "Israel is swallowed up." He was:
1. Absorbed by the world. The Gentiles got wholly the possession of him. It is so spiritually with those who try to serve both God and mammon. The attempt to serve two masters proves vain. The world gains ground in the heart; God loses ground. By-and-by the world has the whole. The backslider is "swallowed up" (cf. 1 Timothy 6:9, 1 Timothy 6:10; 2 Timothy 4:10).
2. An object of contempt to the world. "Among the Gentiles as a vessel wherein there is no pleasure." The world in its heart secretly despises those whom it has got under its influence, having turned them away from God. It holds them in contempt. Two kinds of men the world has respect for—its own kind, and the thoroughly godly. It has no respect at all for the third something, that tries to be both and yet is neither—the trimmer, the compromiser, the backslider. Nor, once it has them in its power, is it slow to show its contempt for them.
II. THE DESIRE TO BE INDEPENDENT OF GOD LEADS TO DEPENDENCE ON THE WORLD. (Hosea 8:9) Israel went up to Assyria—"a wild ass alone by itself." We understand the figure to allude to Israel's intractable spirit and desire of independence. The nation must, at all costs, be rid of God's yoke, and go out "alone by itself." The use it makes of its independence, however, is to go to Assyria. The motive is not, of course, to have Assyria's yoke imposed on it instead of God's; but this is the result. Seeking independence of God, it sinks into dependence on Assyria. Herein is imaged the end of all attempts at a false independence.
1. True freedom for man—true independence—dies in loyal acceptance of the rule of God. This gives inward emancipation and superiority to the seductions of the world.
2. Renouncing this, the soul sinks into a dependence on finite things, alien to its nature. It fails into bondage. It exchanges God's service for a worse. It is ruled by the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life (l John 2:10). The prodigal, leaving his father's house for freedom, ended by joining himself to a citizen in the "far country," who sent him into his fields to feed swine (Luke 15:15, Luke 15:16).
III. TRAFFICKING WITH THE WORLD LEADS TO OPPRESSION BY THE WORLD. (Hosea 8:10) Israel trafficked with the world for its favor—"hired among the nations;" the result being that it was given up by God to be oppressed by the world—"the burden of the king of princes." The stages are
1. Divinely given. "Now will I gather them." It was God, and no one else, who gave this people into the hands of the foreigners.
2. Distressing. Israel would suffer much in exile. Her burden would be heavy; her numbers would be diminished. The world is a terrible tyrant over those whom it gets in its power.
3. Equitable. We trace here the same proportionateness between sin and punishment as falls so frequently to be noticed. They voluntarily "hired" among the nations; now they are oppressed by Gentile tribute.—J.O.