Hosea 6:1
Come, and let us return unto the Lord
The Septuagint and Arabic versions connect these words with the
last clause of the preceding chapter, adding the word, "saying";
and so the Targum and Syriac version, "they shall say"; and very
rightly as to the sense; for they are the words of those persons
under the afflicting hand of God; and, being brought thereby to a
sense of their sins, acknowledge them, and seek to the Lord for
pardon, and encourage one another so to do; as Israel and Judah
will in the latter day, when the veil shall be taken off their
minds, the hardness of their heart removed, and they shall be
converted, and turn to the Lord, and seek him together, weeping
as they go; having both faith in Christ, and repentance towards
God, by which they will return unto him; see ( 2
Corinthians 3:16 ) ( Jeremiah
50:4 Jeremiah
50:5 ) ; so all sinners sensible of their departure from God
by sin, and of the evil and danger of it, repent of it, and loath
it, confess and acknowledge it, depart from it, and forsake it;
and return to the Lord, having some view and apprehension of him
as a God, gracious and merciful in Christ; imploring the
forgiveness of their sins, with some degree of faith and
confidence in him; and not having only love to their own souls,
and the welfare of them, but also to the souls of others, exhort
and encourage them to join with them in the same acts of faith,
repentance, and obedience. The Targum is,
``let us return to the worship of the Lord;''
from which they have sadly departed. The arguments or reasons
follow,
for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath
smitten, and he will
bind us up;
the same hand that has torn will heal and that has smitten will
bind up, and none else can; and therefore there is a necessity of
returning to him for healing and a cure, (
Deuteronomy
32:39 ) ; and his tearing is in order to heal, and his smiting
in order to bind up; and, as sure as he has done the one, he will
do the other, and therefore there is great encouragement to apply
to him; all which the Jews will be sensible of in the last day; and
then the Lord, who is now tearing them in his wrath, and smiting
them in his sore displeasure, both in their civil and church state,
dispersing them among the nations, and has been so doing for many
hundred years, will "bind up the breach of his people, and heal the
stroke of their wound", (
Isaiah 30:26 ) ; and so
the Lord deals with all his people, who are truly and really
converted by him; he rends their heart, tears the caul of it;
pricks and cuts them to the heart; smites them with the hammer of
his word; wounds their consciences with a sense of sin; lets in the
law into them, which works wrath, whereby they become broken and
contrite; and all this in order to their turning to him that smites
them, and be healed, and in love to their souls, though for the
present grievous to bear: and then the great Physician heals them
by his stripes and wounds; by the application of his blood; by
means of his word, the Gospel of peace and pardon; by a look to
him, and a touch of him by faith; by discoveries of his love, and
particularly his pardoning grace and mercy, which as oil and wine
he pours into the wounds made by sin, and binds them up; and which
he heals universally, both with respect to persons and diseases,
for which he is applied unto, and infallibly, thoroughly, and
perfectly, and all freely.