Hosea 14:5

I will be as the dew unto Israel - Before, He had said, “his spring shall become dry and his fountain shall be dried up” Hosea 13:15. Now again He enlarges the blessing; their supply shall be unfailing, for it shall be from God; yea, God Himself shall be that blessing; “I will be the dew; descending on the mown grass” Psalms 72:6, to quicken and refresh it; descending, Himself, into the dried and parched and sere hearts of men, as He saith, “We will come unto him and make Our abode in him” John 14:23. The grace of God, like the dew, is not given once for all, but is, day by day, waited for, and, day by day, renewed. Yet doth it not pass away, like the fitful goodness John 6:4 of God’s former people, but turns into the growth and spiritual substance of those on whom it descends.

He shall grow as the lily - No one image can exhibit the manifold grace of God in those who are His own, or the fruits of that grace. So the prophet adds one image to another, each supplying a distinct likeness of a distinct grace or excellence. The “lily” is the emblem of the beauty and purity of the soul in grace; the “cedar” of Lebanon, of its strength and deep-rootedness, its immovableness and uprightness; the evergreen “olive tree” which “remaineth in its beauty both winter and summer,” of the unvarying presence of Divine Grace, continually, supplying an eversustained freshness, and issuing in fruit; and the fragrance of the aromatic plants with which the lower parts of Mount Lebanon are decked, of its loveliness and sweetness; as a native explains this , “he takes a second comparison from Mount Lebanon for the abundance of aromatic things and odoriferous flowers.”

Such are the myrtles and lavender and the odoriferous reed; from which “as you enter the valley” (between Lebanon and Anti-lebanon) “straightway the scent meets you.” All these natural things are established and well-known symbols of things spiritual. The lily, so called in Hebrew from its dazzling whiteness, is, in the Canticles Song of Solomon 2:1, the emblem of souls in which Christ takes delight. The lily multiplies exceedingly : yet hath it a weak root and soon fadeth. The prophet, then, uniteth with these, plants of unfading green, and deep root. The seed which “had no root,” our Lord says, “withered away” Matthew 13:6, as contrariwise, Paul speaks of these, who are “rooted and grounded in love” Ephesians 3:17, and of being “rooted and built up in Christ” Colossians 2:7. The widespreading branches are an emblem of the gradual growth and enlargement of the Church, as our Lord says, “It becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof” Matthew 13:32.

The symmetry of the tree and its outstretched arms express, at once, grace and protection. Of the “olive” the Psalmist says, “I am like a green olive tree in the house Of God” Psalms 52:8; and Jeremiah says, “The Lord called thy name a green olive tree, fair and of goodly fruit” Jeremiah 11:16; and of “fragrance” the spouse says in the Canticles, “because of the savor of Thy good ointments, Thy name is as ointment poured forth” Song of Solomon 1:3; and the Apostle says, “thanks be to God, which maketh manifest the savor of His knowledge by us in every place” 2 Corinthians 2:14. Deeds of charity also are “an odor of good smell” Philippians 4:18; the prayers of the saints also are “sweet odors” Revelation 5:8. All these are the fruits of the Spirit of God who says, “I will be as the dew unto Israel.” Such reunion of qualities, being beyond nature, suggests the more, that, that, wherein they are all combined, the future Israel, the Church, shall flourish with graces beyond nature, in their manifoldness, completeness, unfadingness.