Attributed commentary excerpt
Barnes' Notes on Hosea 12:9
A historical reference excerpt for this verse. Read it alongside the biblical text and other available sources.
Notes on the Whole Bible
Albert Barnes (1798–1870) · 19th-century historical commentary
Source: BibleWord.ai's local reference edition of this named work.
And I, the Lord thy God from the land of Egypt - God, in few words, comprises whole centuries of blessings, all, from the going out of Egypt to that very day, all the miracles in Egypt, in the wilderness, under Joshua, the Judges; one stream of benefits it had been, which God had poured out upon them from first to last. The penitent sees in one glance, how God had been “his” God, from his birth until that hour, and how he had all along offended God. Will yet make thee to dwell in tabernacles - The feast of tabernacles was the yearly remembrance of God’s miraculous guidance and support of Israel through the wilderness. It was the link, which bound on their deliverance from Egypt to the close of their pilgrim-life and their entrance into their rest. The passage of the Red Sea, like Baptism, was the beginning of God’s promises. By it israel was saved from Egypt and from bondage, and was born to be a people of God. Yet, being the beginning, it was plainly not the completion; nor could they themselves complete it. Enemies, more powerful than they, had to be dispossessed; “the great and terrible wilderness, the fiery serpents and scorpions, and the land of exceeding drought, where was no water” Deuteronomy 8:15, had to be surmounted; no food was there, no water, for so vast a multitude. It was a time of the visible presence of God. He promised; “I send an Angel before thee to keep thee in the way and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared” Exodus 23:20. “He brought them forth water out of the rock of flint, and fed them with manna which,” He says, “thy fathers knew not” Deuteronomy 8:15-16. “Thy raiment,” He appeals to them, “waxed not old, nor did thy foot swell these forty years” Deuteronomy 8:4; “thy shoe is not waxen old upon thy foot; ye have not eaten bread, neither have ye drunk wine or strong drink, that ye may know that I am the Lord your God” Deuteronomy 29:5-6. It was a long trial-time, in which they were taught entire dependence upon God; a time of sifting, in which God proved His faithfulness to those who persevered. Standing there between the beginning and the end of the accomplishment of God’s promise to Abraham and to them, it was a type of His whole guidance of His people at all times. It was a pledge that God would lead His own, if often “by a way which they knew not” Isaiah 42:16, yet to rest, with Him. The yearly commemoration of it was not only a thanksgiving for God’s past mercies; it was a confession also of their present relation to God, that “here we have no continuing city” (Hebrews 13:14; compare Hosea 11:9-10); that they still needed the guidance and support of God; and that their trust was not in themselves, nor in man, but in Him. This they themselves saw. : “When they said, ‘Leave a fixed habitation, and dwell in a chance abode,’ they meant, that the command to dwell in tabernacles was given, to teach us, that no man must rely on the height or strength of his house, or on its good arrangements though it abound in all good; nor may he rely on the help of any man, not though he were lord and king of the whole earth, but must trust in Him by whose word the worlds were made. For with Him alone is power and faithfulness, so that, whereinsoever any man may place his trust, he shall receive no consolation from it, since in God alone is refuge and trust, as it is said, ‘Whoso putteth his trust in the Lord, mercy embraceth him on every side, and I will say unto the Lord, my Refuge and my Fortress, my God,…
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