Hosea 7:6-10
Hosea 7:6
(KJB)
For they have made ready their heart like an oven, whiles
they lie in wait: their baker sleepeth all the night; in the morning it burneth
as a flaming fire.
Israel did not just fall into sin, instead they had
planned all their sinful ventures.
Just like a baker who puts wood in a stove and ignites it until it gets to the
right temperature to bake. They had
ignited their passions for sin and while the oven was getting hot, they too were
stoking the flame of their sins as they lied in wait, which means they were
planning their sin. The problem is that
when the baker ignited the oven, he went to sleep and instead of watching the
oven to make sure that it burned properly, he ignored his duty and when he awoke
in the morning, he saw the oven was consumed with fire and all baked goods were
destroyed. The same thing happened
to Israel instead of them watching their lives and living for the LORD, they
played the harlot and sinned against the LORD and when they finally came to
their senses, they would be in captivity with the Assyrians meaning their land
would be taken and they would never again return to their land.
Hosea 7:7
(KJB)
They are all hot as an oven, and have devoured their
judges; all their kings are fallen: there is none among them that calleth unto
me.
Just as the oven which was heated and then left by itself
to burn and devour what was inside, Israel had devoured the last of the judges
which would have been the honest magistrates who refused to rebel against the
LORD and join the rabble who were living the life of debauchery.
As a result of their sin, there were no saved kings in the northern
kingdom and this resulted in the fall of all the kings including the last one
who would go into captivity with the Assyrians.
While they were suffering for their sins, none of them called upon the
LORD to see what was happening so they could return and not face the coming
judgment.
Hosea 7:8
(KJB)
Ephraim, he hath mixed himself among the people; Ephraim
is a cake not turned.
Ephraim had co-mingled with the pagans and this resulted
in them turning completely away from the LORD.
A cake not turned would be uneatable because it would be burned on one
side and still remain raw on the other side.
Israel was to be a holy nation unto the LORD instead they had become so
co-mingled with the false religions and false gods that they were totally
corrupted. You could basically
apply the term Total Depravity to Israel because everything they did was steeped
in sin.
Exodus 19:6 (KJV) And ye shall be unto me
a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt
speak unto the children of Israel.
As Exodus 19:6 states, they were to be holy but they had strayed very far
from that position.
Hosea 7:9
(KJB)
Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knoweth it
not: yea, gray hairs are here and there upon him, yet he knoweth not.
The one great principle which sin never lets a person
know is deception. Sin deceives to
the point that you do not even know you are living in a state of sin.
2 Timothy 3:13 (KJV) But evil men
and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.
2 Timothy 3:13 is very apropos to their situation because they had become
evil men and were being deceived and in turn were continuing to deceive others
and themselves. They were as those
with gray hairs which symbolized old age and the nearness of death but they were
too busy in the life of sin to realize that judgment for their actions was soon
to be upon them.
Hosea 7:10
(KJB)
And the pride of Israel testifieth to his face: and they
do not return to the LORD their God, nor seek him for all this.