John Calvin Commentary Hosea 13:6

"According to their pasture, so were they filled; they were filled, and their heart was exalted: therefore have they forgotten me." — Hosea 13:6 (ASV)

The Prophet shows here that the people were in every way intractable. He has indeed handled this argument in other places, but the repetition is not superfluous.

After he had said that the people were ungrateful for not continuing in the service of their Redeemer—by whom they had been so kindly and bountifully treated in the desert, where they would have perished through famine and want if the Lord had not, in an unusual manner, brought them help in their great necessity—he now adds, “The Lord would also have allured you by other means, had you not been of a wholly wild and barbarous disposition; but from this it is clear that you are utterly disobedient, for after you have been brought out of the desert, you came to rich pastures.”

The land of Israel is here compared to rich and fertile pastures, as if he said, “God has placed you in an inheritance where you might eat to the full, as when a shepherd leads his sheep to a spot especially fertile.”

What did take place? To their pastures they came, and were filled; they were filled, and elevated became their heart, and they forgot me.

Therefore, since the Israelites had extinguished the memory of their redemption, after the Lord had fed them when hungry in the desert, and since in their fullness they rejected God, shook off His yoke, and, like ferocious horses, kicked against Him, it became evident that their nature was so unnameable that they could by no means be reduced to obedience or submission. We will defer the rest until tomorrow.

Prayer:

Grant, Almighty God, that as You do so kindly call on us daily by Your voice, meekly and calmly to offer ourselves to be ruled by You, and since You have exalted us to a high degree of honor by freeing us from the dread of the devil, and from that tyranny which kept us in miserable fear, and have also favored us with the Spirit of adoption and of hope—O grant, that we, being mindful of these benefits, may ever submit ourselves to You, and desire only to raise our voice for this purpose, that the whole world may submit itself to You, and that those who seem now to rage against You may at last be brought, as well as we, to render You obedience, so that Your Son Christ may be the Lord of all, to the end that You alone may be exalted, and that we may be made subject to You, and be at last raised up above, and become partakers of that glory which has been obtained for us by Christ our Lord. Amen.

[Exposition continues from previous day's lecture]

We observed in yesterday's lecture that the Israelites were condemned because, when fed in rich pastures, they were like mettlesome horses; and this is what commonly happens. And even Moses foretold this in his song:

My chosen, having become fat, kicked against me (Deuteronomy 32:15).

What the Prophet said was now fulfilled; fullness had produced ferocity in the people of Israel. According to their pastures, he says, they were filled; they were satiated, and their heart was elevated. Ezekiel declares the same of Sodom; when their stomach was well filled they became proud (Ezekiel 16:49). But the Prophet speaks there of their cruelty towards men, for he says that the Sodomites, while abounding in all blessings, were full of cruelty, so that they contemptuously despised the poor. But the prophet condemns here a worse thing in the people of Israel, for their heart was inflated with pride against God.

And there is, in the last place, a mention made of their forgetfulness of God. It is impossible for people who are blinded by willful self-confidence not to cast aside every fear of God and every concern for religion. And this passage teaches us that we ought to use our abundance temperately and frugally, and that we ought, in the first place, to beware lest the bounty of God should lead to a forgetfulness of Him. For it is an extreme perversion that the more generously God pours His gifts upon us, the narrower our hearts become, and that His benefits should be like veils to cover our eyes. We ought then to labor, that the benefits of God may, on the contrary, renew the recollection of Him in our minds; and then, as I have said, let moderation and frugality be added.