Hosea 6 · The Lantern

"Come, and let us return to the Lord; for he has torn us to pieces, and he will heal us; he has injured us, and he will bind up our wounds.

The Holy Spirit set this forth of old, when he said in the Psalms, "O my king and my God. For to you will I pray; O Lord, in the morning you shall hear my voice.

"In their affliction they will rise early to me: come and let us return to the Lord, for he has taken us, and he will heal us; he will wound us and he will cure us; he will bring us to life after two days, and on the third day he will raise us up and we shall live in his sight: we shall know and we shall follow, that we may know the Lord." LXX: "In their affliction they will ri…

In the beginning he seized Adam's human nature; for he at once declared it accursed, ascribing it to death and corruption. Thus the wrath has struck, but grace plugged the wound with lint. For Christ has brought the healing. He invited [us] to know the true divine revelation; he confirmed [us] through the Spirit to observe the commandments.

After two days he will revive us. On the third day he will raise us up, and we will live before him.

For hear what the prophet says: "God will raise us up after two days, and on the third day we shall rise again and shall live in his sight." The first day for us is the passion of the Savior, and the second, on which he descended into hell, but the third is the day of the resurrection.

Further on, Hosea foretold the resurrection of Christ on the third day, but in the mysterious way that is proper to prophecy. He says, "He shall heal us after two days, and on the third day we shall rise again." This is the idea underlying the words of Paul [when he says], "Therefore if you have risen in Christ, seek the things that are above."

This is Hosea, the first of the twelve prophets who was privileged to speak concerning the Lord Christ in these terms: When they are afflicted, let them rise early to seek me saying, Come and let us return unto the Lord our God, for he hath smitten us and he will heal us; he that hath struck us will bind us up. After two days will he heal us.

Let us acknowledge the Lord. Let us press on to know the Lord. As surely as the sun rises, The Lord will appear. He will come to us like the rain, like the spring rain that waters the earth."

Nor is this the only thing that proves the dignity of the water. But there is also that which is more honorable than all—the fact that Christ, the maker of all, came down as the rain, and was known as a spring, and diffused himself as a river, and was baptized in the Jordan. For you have just heard how Jesus came to John and was baptized by him in the Jordan.

[God] is called not only at morning or dawn or daybreak; he will come to us as an early and later rain to earth. We accept Christ as an early rain when the foundations of the faith are laid within us, and we shall take him as a late rain when after the crop is ripened we grasp eternal fruits and store them up in the Master's barn.

For I suppose that he waters in two ways upon us who received faith and have known rightly his manifestation. On the one hand, he reveals knowledge in the spirit of the old and legal, and in addition to these, prophetic teachings. In my view, this is the early rain.

"Ephraim, what shall I do to you? Judah, what shall I do to you? For your love is like a morning cloud, and like the dew that disappears early.

Therefore I have cut them to pieces with the prophets; I killed them with the words of my mouth. Your judgments are like a flash of lightning.

For I desire mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.

And as Jesus passed forth from thence, he saw a man, named Matthew, sitting at the receipt of custom: and he saith unto him, Follow me. And he arose, and followed him. And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples.

Great is the principle of mercy to God. Not only his to us, but also that issuing from us to our fellow servants. In the Old Testament and the New, God lays down innumerable laws pertaining to this matter. He orders us to be benevolent continually in all quarters, through words, money and deeds.

Counsel disposes to mercy: for there is nothing God counsels more in Scripture than to show mercy, which he esteems above all holocausts.

But they, like Adam, have broken the covenant. They were unfaithful to me, there.

Gilead is a city of those who work iniquity; it is stained with blood.

As gangs of robbers wait to ambush a man, so the company of priests murder in the way toward Shechem, committing shameful crimes.

In the house of Israel I have seen a horrible thing. There is prostitution in Ephraim. Israel is defiled.

"Also, Judah, there is a harvest appointed for you, when I restore the fortunes of my people.

Hosea6