Faithful God (Part Ten): Holy Heart Surgery

Transcript

JROT 10
02/12/2023
Faithful God (Part Ten): Holy Heart Surgery
Hosea 7:1-16
Jesse Randolph

Well, its good to be back here this evening. When a crocodile clamps down on its prey whether it be a bird or a fish or a human being, a set of glands right near their eyes known as the lacrimal glands will release a liquid through the crocodile’s eyes. Which make it appear as it’s clamping down on its prey, that the crocodile is crying. That this cold-blooded reptile is somehow getting misty for what it’s done, that it’s tearing up for its act of killing. Now, the crocodile, of course, doesn’t actually feel sorrow or regret or distress over what it’s done. The crocodile is a predator. It hunts and it preys and it feeds. And once it’s filled its stomach with the flesh of one victim, it’s all about moving on to the next victim. And the tears, if they can be called that, they are expressed through these lacrimal glands, aren’t real tears of remorse, or self-examination, or self-reflection, and certainly not repentance, what has been culturally crocodile tears.

Well, as a guy who’s done quite a bit of pastoral visitation and even biblical counseling over the years, I’ve see my fair share of crocodile tears. Not with crocodiles mine you, I’ve never counseled a crocodile. But in people, people who come into my office with this problem or that problem, or dealing with this sin or that sin. And they lay it all on the table, they vent, they confess, and they cry. They ask for a tissue. And as they walk out the door, they walk headlong into that same old mess of sin that they were messing with before. The commitment they made to living rightly in accordance with God’s truth, God’s word, wasn’t’ real. It was put on. It was designed to get them out of a bad situation. The promises that husbands made to live this way or the promises that wives made to live that way, were insincere. And the tears that they shed weren’t real tears, but were crocodile tears. In other words, what was advertised in each of those situations, what appeared to be was sorrow, regret, remorse, even repentance, but there was not true sorrow, regret, remorse or repentance.

Of course, the Apostle Paul picks up on this distinction, does he not, in 2 Corinthians 7? Of that distinction between true remorse and fake remorse, true repentance and false repentance.
In 2 Corinthians 7:10 he notes: “For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death.”
In other words, there’s one kind of sorrow, godly sorrow, which leads to salvation. But there’s another kind of sorrow, worldly sorrow, which is often accompanied by crocodile tears, which leads to death.

Well, as we resume our study of Hosea this evening, we’re going to see that Israel on a national scale, as a nation, as a people, they knew a thing or two about worldly sorrow. They knew a thing about false repentance. They knew a thing or two as we’re going to see even about shedding crocodile tears.

In fact, in our study in the first six chapters of Hosea, we’ve already seen Israel engage in this false form of repentance. Those instances where it looked like the nation might actually be returning to her God. Hosea 2:7, you can flip over there if you’d like, Hosea 2:7, we’ve covered this territory already, but here we’re in the scene of Hosea and Gomer. And Hosea is saying to Gomer, or about Gomer, “Then she will say, ‘I will go back to my first husband, for it was better for me then than now!’ ”
Or Hosea 5:6, now we’re getting into the scene between Israel and Yahweh, Hosea 5:6 says, “They,” meaning Israel, “will go with their flocks and their herds to seek the Lord, but they will not find Him.”
But Israel was faking it. They returned to God when it was expedient and convenient for them. They returned to God using means and methods that they knew would ultimately be found worthless, like these sacrifices of flocks and herds. And when they would attempt to return to God, it was never lasting, it was never the real thing. It was always fleeting. And as we saw last week, in Hosea 6:4, where God says, “For your loyalty is like a morning cloud and like the dew which goes away early.” In other words, there was no heart-level repentance on Israel’s part during Hosea’s day. They were faking it. They knew that they were the chosen people of God. But they were just going along for the ride, riding the coattails of their faithful forefathers. Rather than demonstrating that they themselves had anything approaching a true relationship with the living God.

Well, the all-wise, all-powerful, all-knowing God of the universe, the God of Israel wasn’t buying it. He wasn’t swayed by their swings of emotion. He wasn’t falling for their false repentance. He wasn’t being conned by their crocodile tears. And so, what we see in this next section of Hosea, Hosea 7, is God giving His divine diagnosis. Performing what I have called here His ‘holy heart surgery’, on this spiritually wayward and apostate people, which we’re gong to see, as we work our way through the text this evening.

I’m going to go ahead and read out the entire text to get us started. And as I do so, I want you to note how often the hearts of the people are mentioned here. That where the word “heart” is mentioned, or where some aspects, some reference, to what the heart does, is mentioned as it drifts, as it strays, as it devises, as it wanders, as it plans, as it cries, and so on. Again the title of the message this evening is “Holy Heart Surgery.” It will be an exposition of Hosea 7. And we’ll start, actually Hosea 6:11. If you’ll remember last week, we ended at 6:11a.

We’re going to start with Hosea 6:11b, which I believe belongs with Hosea 7. So, we’ll start with the very last part of Hosea 6:11. It says, “When I restore the fortunes of My people, when I would heal Israel, the iniquity of Ephraim is uncovered, and the evil deeds of Samaria, for they deal falsely; the thief enters in, bandits raid outside, and they do not consider in their hearts that I remember all their wickedness. Now their deeds are all around them; they are before My face. With their wickedness they make the king glad, and the princes with their lies. They are all adulterers, like an oven heated by the baker who ceases to stir up the fire from the kneading of the dough until it is leavened. On the day of our king, the princes became sick with the heat of wine; he stretched out his hand with scoffers, for their hearts are like an oven as they approach their plotting; their anger smolders all night, in the morning it burns like a flaming fire. All of them are hot like an oven, and they consume their rulers; all their kings have fallen. None of them calls on Me.”

“Ephraim mixes himself with the nations; Ephraim has become a cake not turned. Strangers devour his strength, yet he does not know it; gray hairs are sprinkled on him, yet he does not know it. Though the pride of Israel testifies against him, yet they have not returned to the Lord their God, nor have they sought Him, for all this. So Ephraim has become like a silly dove, without sense; they call to Egypt, they go to Assyria. When they go, I will spread My net over them; I will bring them down like the birds of the sky. I will chastise them in accordance with the proclamation to their assembly. Woe to them, for they have strayed from Me! Destruction is theirs, for they have rebelled against Me. I would redeem them, but they speak lies against Me. And they do not cry to me from their heart when they wail on their beds; for the sake of grain and new wine they assemble themselves, they turn away from me. Although I trained and strengthened their arms, yet they devise evil against me. They turn, but not upward, they are like a deceitful bow; their princes will fall by the sword because of the insolence of their tongue. This will be their derision in the land of Egypt.”
Now, on just that read-through, you likely picked up on the many different angles from which God attempted here to get at the heart of His people. But each time His attempts to do so were frustrated. And not because of any lack or weakness in Him, but instead, because of the depths of their wickedness and rebellion and sin toward Him. The sin and wickedness of Israel was continual, it was ongoing, it was pervasive, it was comprehensive. Affecting the northern and southern tribes alike as we saw last time. And affecting various different levels of society, from the common man all the way up to the king and the princes. We have a lot to cover tonight. I don’t have alliterated points for you this evening. My apologies, we’re just going to do this word by word, line upon line, verse by verse. And there is a lot of text, as we’ve just read, to cover, so, we’ll get right into it.

Starting at the very end again, of Hosea 6:11, getting into chapter 7:1, he says, “When I restore the fortunes of My people, when I would heal Israel, the iniquity of Ephraim is uncovered, and the evil deeds of Samaria, for they deal falsely; the thief enters in, bandits raid outside.” Now, this section actually begins with these words of hope. Words coming from God through Hosea as he approaches His people with this intent of restoring them. Again, He says there, to “restore the fortunes” of His people, He’s there to “heal Israel”. And that’s notwithstanding all the sin and the iniquity that Israel had given herself up to this point. And notwithstanding all the sin and the iniquity that Israel would go on to participate in both later in the days of Hosea and after Hosea’s ministry. See, God still viewed His people as favored, as this kingdom of priests, as this holy nation, as the apple of His eye, as the ultimate recipient of His covenant promises. In other words, He hadn’t given up on them.

But now, as we keep reading through, the holy heart surgery begins. We’re only half a verse in and Israel, you could say, is already on the operating table as Yahweh here says through Hosea here, that the “Iniquity of Ephraim is uncovered, and the evil deeds of Samaria.” Now, when God spoke of Israel in the first part of verse 1 here, when it says “I would heal Israel,” he’s referring here to Israel as a whole. He’s referring here to Israel and Judah, the southern tribes and the northern tribes. But then when he mentions Ephraim and Samaria, it’s clear that He’s narrowing His focus. And He has the northern kingdom in His sights. See, Ephraim was a collective reference to the ten northern tribes. And Samaria during Hosea’s day was the capital city of the northern kingdom.

And the Lord here wastes no time in describing what He finds in the north. He finds sin. The “iniquity, “it says, “of Ephraim is uncovered,” along with “the evil deeds of Samaria.” The people of the north were notoriously wicked and sinful. And as we’re going to see this evening, as we work our way through this chapter, God lays out this disturbing list. This full catalogue of the types of sins that the northern tribes were engaged in. And those sins revealed the wicked hearts of these people. And it showcased the justness of the justice of God in meting out His punishment by way of conquer and captivity that was about to come their way.

Look at the next part of verse 1. And there, we pick up on the first sin that’s going to be worked through here, or addressed here, in Hosea 7 and that is thievery. He says, “For they deal falsely; the thief enters in, bandits raid outside.” What we appear to have here is a description of poetic justice. The people of Israel, it says, they were dealing falsely, meaning among themselves. They were conducting themselves deceitfully and acting fraudulently. And that could have taken a number of forms. We don’t exactly know what’s being referred to here. It could have been unjust scales. Could have been unjust interest rates that were being charged. Could have been wages that were being withheld, or any other form of direct or indirect theft. But now, as we see, Israel was starting to get a taste of her own medicine, because the end of verse 1 says, now “the thief enters in” and “bandits raid outside.” In other words, trouble was brewing, both on the inside and on the outside. But of all people, Israel had no grounds for complaining. Because the thievery and the evil that was coming upon them, resembled the thievery and the evil that was already in their midst. As they had clearly ignored God’s command in Exodus 20:15, “Thou [you] shall not steal.”

And then in verse 2, comes one of several divine indictments from Yahweh in this section of the prophecy of Hosea. Look what it says in verse 2, it says, “And they do not consider in their hearts that I remember all their wickedness. Now their deeds are all around them; they are before My face.”
See, the people of Israel were engaging in all of this wickedness, this folly. And they were dealing falsely. But in doing so they forgot something. They forgot that God saw it all, they forgot that God witnessed it all. So swept up were they in their own illicit activity that they failed to take account of the possibility that Yahweh might notice what they were doing. That He might disapprove of all that they were doing. And that under the searching light of His omnipotence and omnipresence that nothing was escaping His sight. As Moses said in Psalm 90:8, “You have placed our iniquities before You, our secret sins in the light of Your presence.” Or as David said famously in Psalm 139:2-4, “You know when I sit down and when I rise up… and are intimately acquainted with all my ways. Even before there is a word on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it all.”

The Israel of Hosea’s day failed to recognize that God was disapprovingly taking note of their every wicked deed. Which calls to mind Psalm 50, a psalm of Asaph, which says starting in verse 16, “But to the wicked God says, ‘What right have you to tell of My statutes and to take My covenant in your mouth? For you hate discipline, and you cast My words behind you. When you see a thief, you are pleased with him, and you associate with adulterers. You let your mouth loose in evil and your tongue frames deceit. You sit and speak against your brother; you slander your own mother’s son. These things you have done and I kept silence; you thought that I was just like you; I will reprove you and state the case in order before your eyes.’ ” See, the secret sins of Israel in Hosea’s day, just like the sins in our day, were a complete and open scandal in heaven. None of their wickedness was truly hidden. Instead, it was all subject to the penetrating and holy gaze of Almighty God. And Israel’s sin, as sin always does, clearly had made them stupid.

But the sins of Israel, not only had made them stupid, their sins had completely overtaken them. Which we see at the end of verse 2. It says, “Now their deeds are all around them; they are before My face.” Their sins had completely engulfed them, so that when God looked upon them, all that He saw was guilt and wickedness. No matter what angle He looked at them, all He saw was evil and iniquity. Now, of course, at this point in history, Paul hadn’t arrived on the scene. Paul hadn’t written Romans 1. The cross hadn’t even arrived yet, we weren’t even at that scene yet. But the Israel of Hosea’s day, was very much like the Romans 1 type culture that Paul would later address. Much like our day. This society that is sinful and progressively degrading. This society in which God is turning them over and giving them over to their sin.

Well, the people of Israel were completely oblivious to this assessment of their sinful state. They were completely numbed to their sin. Which was shown among other ways in the political allegiances that they were forging. And we see that develop, their political allegiances, in verses 3-7. In these five verses, Hosea 7:3-7, we’re going to see six references to kings, to princes, and to rulers. That just shows the political heights to which the wickedness of Israel was rising, was absolutely jarring. And it starts in verse 3, it says, “With their wickedness they make the king glad, and the princes with their lies.” Now, what we see here is that rather than rising above the wickedness of the people, the kings and the princes of the land in this day joining the people. The kings and the princes of the land were supposed to be agents of goodness and morality and justice. Proverbs 29:4, “The king gives stability to the land by justice. Proverbs 29:12, “If a ruler pays attention to falsehood, all his ministers become wicked.”
And we see the same concept when we come to the New Testament later in Romans 13, the idea of who’s agent the ruler or the minister is. But that wasn’t happening in the Israel of Hosea’s day. The kings of Hosea’s day were not promoting goodness. They weren’t promoting justice. They weren’t opposing wickedness in the kingdom. Rather, they were partaking in it and they were delighting in it. That’s what’s meant by this phrase here in verse 3, “With their wickedness they make the king glad.”

And not only that, it says their lies were also bringing gladness to the princes of the land. And what an indictment of a truly sad and twisted culture. Again, it has shadows of Romans 1 in it which speaks to the sad and twisted culture in which we live. Romans 1:32, at the very end of that ‘four stage giving over’ that Paul describes, Romans 1:32 says, “and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.” The whole of Israel, from top to bottom, from the civilians to the rulers, was living a lie. This society was awash in iniquity, and reprehensible behavior was being swept under the rug on the grounds that everyone was doing it. But the thing they had forgotten though, and this is a good reminder not only for people in Hosea’s day, but for our day, is that God’s standards and the penalties attached to the breaking of those standards do not change. Because God Himself does not change.

And as we move into verse 4, the ‘holy heart surgery’ continues. Only now, Hosea moves on from these general accusations of wickedness and moves on from the statements about Israel’s lies to this topic that we’ve seen come up over and over in Hosea, in fact, it’s a central theme of this prophecy, which is adultery. Look at the first few words of verse 4, “They are all adulterers.” Now, some have taken this to be a reference to physical adultery. And I’m sure that given the nature, the societal nature of this sin in Israel at this time, that physical adultery was taking place during these wicked days. But I don’t think that’s what’s being singled out here in the context. I don’t think its singling out physical adultery necessarily. Rather, what’s the theme of this entire book, this theme of this prophecy, but that God is faithful, Israel is faithless. They are the spiritually adulterous people. They had covenanted with God the way a bride covenants with her groom. But they had broken that covenant over and over by resorting to the worship of the various false gods in the land. And all of Israel was certainly guilty of this spiritual form of adultery. In that sense “they are all adulterers.”

And then there’s these additional descriptive words in verse 4 which are tied to Israel here being called out as spiritual adulterers. It says they are “like an oven heated by the baker who ceases to stir up the fire from the kneading of the dough until it is leavened.” Now, this is when I want to call one of you up here and say, “Give it your best shot, what do you think that means?” Because it’s a little obscure, it’s a little dated. It’d be fascinating to hear what y’all come up with as to what this possibly means. But as I’ve done the study this week what I’ve come up with is that this is referring to the ever-burning sinful lusts and passions of the people, this idea of this baker and this ever-burning fire in his presence. This is talking about these lusts and these passions to worship other gods, and these lusts and these passions to disobey God that were ever present and prevalent in the people. And the burning passion that the Israelites had here for disobedience is described here like this fire in an oven which is always burning. The baker is there kneading his dough, he’s waiting for the leavening process to be completed when you add the yeast. In other words, he’s sort of in the vicinity of the oven, but he doesn’t need to do anything with the oven because its flame continues to burn. So it was with Israel and her passion for worshiping false gods and her disobedience to the true God. The passions were this continually burning flame, which in Hosea’s day was never put out. She was consistently lusting after other, she was continually whoring after other gods. And though she was continually warned about the consequences for her sin, she ignored the warnings, and now faced not only God’s disapproval, but His judgment.

Now, we turn to verse 5, and here we have Hosea moving on from the more general description of Israel and her wickedness to a specific historical event. “On the day of our king” is how it’s referred to here right there in verse 5, which is likely a reference to a king’s birthday or possibly the anniversary of his coronation. The point though is that it’s some special event, some royal occasion. It’s a happy event, cheerful event, a celebratory event. Or at least it was supposed to be but it wasn’t in this instance. Because look at what happens next in verse 5, it says, “the princes became sick with the heat of the wine.” So if you can imagine with me the camera shot right now, you could say, is pointed at the king and at his court. And they’re partying it up, they’re engaged in drunken revelry. That’s what it means when it says that they “became sick with the heat of the wine.” That the wine had inflamed them. Which is how scripture describes drunkenness, Isaiah 5:11. And also is the actual experience of those who get drunk when their cheeks flush and they feel warm inside and they ultimately get sick.

So, in the midst of all this apostasy and sin, here’s the main idea that was plaguing Israel as a nation. The king and his princes here are pictured as partying it up. They’re just having a grand old time. Enjoying themselves in this drunken celebration. And the king then it says here in verse 5, “stretched out his hand with scoffers.” He’s pictured here as the prototypical drunk guy at the party, who’s glad-handing everybody -- the happy drunk, lampshade guy. And he’s acting the part of the buffoon, because he’s not aware that to some of those he’s stretching out his hand toward, those were the very ones who were seeking to overthrow him and to topple him and to kill him.

That’s what we see in verse 6. And in verse 6… I said the camera angle in verse 5 was pointed at the king and his princes and their drunken partying. Now the camera angle shifts in verse 6 to the conspirators and now we see the conspirators conspiring. And apparently they can’t wait to strike. Look at what it says, “For their hearts are like an oven as they approach their plotting; their anger smolders all night, in the morning it burns like a flaming fire.”

Now, we do know that between approximately 752 B.C. and 732 B.C. in those final years of the northern kingdom, before it was captured and taken into captivity, four different kings of Israel were assassinated and overtaken in rapid succession. I don’t think we have the time to go there right now, but you could jot down 2 Kings 15. And in 2 Kings 15 you see all four of these assassinations happening. First you see Zechariah, the son of Jeroboam, who was conspired against and toppled and killed by a man named Shallum. So, that’s king number 1. Second, in 2 Kings 15:14 you see Menahem killing Shallum, and taking Shallum’s throne. Third, in 2 Kings 25 we see that Pekah, who is an officer of Pekahiah, conspired against Pekahiah, killed him, and became king in his place. Fourth, in 2 Kings 15:30 we see that Hoshea (not Hosea) Hoshea conspired against Pekah. And then it says, “and struck him and put him to death and became king in his place.”

Now, here in Hosea 7:6, we can’t know for sure which of those assassination plots from 2 Kings 15, is being referred to. But considering the timeline during which Hosea ministered and the timeline of when those assassinations occurred in the northern kingdom, we can say with confidence that the words of verse 6 are referring at least to one of those assassination plots even if we don’t know which exact assassination plot it’s referring to. Let’s read it again, verse 6, Hosea 7:6, “For their hearts are like an oven as they approach their plotting; their anger smolders all night, in the morning it burns like a flaming fire.”

And then in verse 7, we see that this assassination plot is actually brought to its fruition. It says, “All of them are hot like an oven, and they consume their rulers.” In other words, the anger and the plotting and the murderous plots which had been smoldering all night that we see back in verse 6, continue to burn into the morning. In other words, those thoughts, those murderous thoughts, didn’t wane or taper off with a good night of sleep. The planning and the plotting wasn’t called off. Instead, it says, “they consume their rulers.” That’s another way of saying the plot succeeded, the king was murdered. Now note, it’s here in verse 7 written in the plural. It’s not ‘they consumed their ruler,’ whether that be Zechariah, Shallum, Pekahiah or Pekah. No, it says, “they consume their rulers.” And then right after that it says, “all their kings have fallen.” And further, “None of them calls on Me.” So, what’s going on here?

While I do think there was a conspiracy against one king, and one murder of that one king, which is being referred to in verse 6 of Hosea 7 -- I do think that what Hosea’s communicating here in his prophecy, especially as we get to verse 7, is that this disease of conspiracy and rebellion had overtaken the entire nation. Hosea, in other words, is capturing in these two verses, verses 6 and 7, he’s capturing, yes, there was this one particular assassination from 2 Kings 15. But he’s also capturing through his language here the overwhelming degree of wickedness that had pervaded the land as king after king was plotted against and killed. And as selfishness and greed and hunger for power ruled the day, the passion for evil and sin was completely smoldering in the land. The people of Israel in Hosea’s day were in a real sense on fire for sin. As they gave into their temptation to sin, it only fueled further temptation, with the fire of sin burning stronger in their hearts until it began to totally consume them.

And then, in a statement that sounds so simple, but at the same time is incredibly weighty, Hosea, we see, says this at the end of verse 7, this is God speaking through Hosea, “None of them calls on Me.”
The people of Israel from the lowest rungs of society to the highest echelons of society, from the common citizen to the king, were going their own way. They weren’t calling on the name of the Lord. They weren’t inquiring of the Lord. They weren’t seeking wisdom and guidance from the Lord. Though He was the true King of Israel and the nation’s only source of hope and stability, they couldn’t see it. Blinded by their pride they thought they had no need for God. They didn’t need to bother to look to the Lord. Instead, they were going to go do their own thing. And we’re about to see where that would lead them.

So, in the verses we’ve covered so far this evening. We’ve seen God calling out Israel’s wickedness, generally. We see Him calling out her lying. We see Him calling out her adultery. We see Him calling out her murderous nature. In the next few verses, we’re going to see God calling out Israel’s disobedience, decay, pride and its foolishness.

Let’s start with Israel’s disobedience, as we turn to verse 8, it says, “Ephraim mixes himself with the nations; Ephraim has become a cake not turned.” Now, we’ve already encountered references to ovens and stirring and baking and kneading in this chapter. But here the theme of baking continues with these words, “Ephraim mixes himself with the nations.” In fact, why don’t you go back with me to Hosea 5. Because what we’re going to see here, is this idea of mixing with nations. This is not just limited here to Hosea 7. Look at Hosea 5:13, we’re going to see another instance of Ephraim mixing with the nations. “When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah his wound, then Ephraim went to Assyria and sent to King Jareb. But he is unable to heal you.” We’re also going to see this in Hosea 8 next week. Look at Hosea 8:9, it says, “For they have gone up to Assyria, like a wild donkey all alone; Ephraim has hired lovers.” And then verse 10, “Even though they hire allies among the nations, now I will gather them up; and they will begin to diminish because of the burden of the king of princes.”
So, we know from multiple places in the book of Hosea, that this was happening, these attempts to purchase allegiances with other nations. And in doing so, the people of Israel were rejecting the principles that God had laid out for the nation, all the way back in Exodus 34. In Exodus 34 [verses 12-16], God declares to Israel there, He says, “Watch yourself that you make no covenant with the inhabitants of the land into which you are going, or it will become a snare in your midst. But rather, you are to tear down their altars and smash their sacred pillars and cut down their Asherim – for you shall not worship any other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God – otherwise you might make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land and they would play the harlot with their gods and sacrifice to their gods, and someone might invite you to eat of his sacrifice, and you might take some of his daughters for your sons, and his daughters might play the harlot with their gods and cause your sons also to play the harlot with their gods.”

And those words had proven to be true, right? Hadn’t Israel by Hosea’s day, in fact, “play[ed] the harlot with their gods”, the gods of the surrounding peoples? Yes! That’s at the root of God’s charges of adultery against Israel throughout the book of Hosea. The people had rejected God’s warnings. They had ignored His clear counsel, that He despises the mixture of unholy and unclean things with holy and consecrated things. His people were this holy and consecrated nation and they were not to marry into, or otherwise mix in, with the surrounding nations.
But Israel didn’t care. They were going to do things their own way. They were going to hop in bed with the surrounding peoples. Regardless of what God thought. “Ephriam,” it says, “mixes himself with the nations.”

And then we get this other interesting baking metaphor at the end of verse 8 where it says, “Ephriam has become a cake not turned.” Now, that’s not a compliment. That’s not a delicacy. Now, when we think of cakes, we think of chocolate frosting and birthday candles and the like. God isn’t calling Ephriam ‘sweet’ here. Instead, He is calling out Ephraim’s practice of mixing with the other nations. And the type of cake that He’s referring to when it says its “become a cake not turned” would have been a flat cake. Similar to a pancake, which was cooked at the time on hot stones. Israel, what’s being said here, through her apostasy and through her mixing with all the other nations, had become like an unturned cake on hot stones. And what happens to a cake that’s been cooking on hot stones for too long? It burns on one side. And it’s undercooked or underdone on the other side. It’s literally half-baked. It’s useless. And it’s only fit to be thrown away.

That’s a fit characterization for Israel and how God viewed them at this time. By mixing herself with the surrounding peoples they’d shown themselves to be unfit for their purpose. Their purpose being to display the goodness of God to the nations. God had set Israel apart, you’ll remember, to be this holy nation. And they were to be distinct from the nations and through their distinctiveness they would display God’s character to the nations. They were to be holy as God is holy. But if Israel started to mix with the nations as it started to do, it could no longer perform this role. It's central purpose as a nation was lost. It was useless. And it was a nation that God was soon going to punish and send away, as we know, into captivity. I like how one commentator explained this idea of a “cake not turned,” when he says, “How better describe a half-fed people, a half-cultured society, a half-lived religion, a half-hearted policy, than by a half-baked scone?” So, Israel was disobedient in that they failed to heed God’s warnings against mixing with other nations.

Next, we’re going to see that not only were they disobedient, they were decaying. Look at Hosea7:9, he says, “Strangers devour his strength, yet he does not know it; gray hairs are also sprinkled on him, yet he does not know it.” Now, Hosea here, is going after the effects of Israel’s accommodating foreign policy, by comparing Israel to an elderly man who is failing to notice the gradual effects of the aging process. He’s falling apart and he doesn’t even know it. His strength is leaving him. “Gray hairs…,” it says, are being “sprinkled on him.” These are clear marks of aging. As this man goes from young and strong to old and weak, as this man goes from having, you know, full coverage up top of black or blond or red or brown hair to having a few grays sprinkled in, to having all gray, to having all white, to have nothing. And like the unwitting, aging man who doesn’t realize that age is quickly overtaking him and that death is much closer than he expects or anticipates, that’s what’s happening to Israel. They’re being sapped of their strength nationally. This was the time of Israel making these tribute payments for protection and security to all these surrounding nations, that were in fact, trying to overtake them. So, they were being drained financially. Not only that, but the very end in terms of the political and national autonomy of Israel was coming. All the signs of demise were there. But like the aging man that’s illustrated here, they didn’t know it.

Have you ever been around one of those really old men, who doesn’t realize that they are old? And they are wearing things that shouldn’t be wearing any more. And acting ways they shouldn’t be acting any more. And some of you young people are probably saying, ‘Yeah, that’s me, I’m doing that.’ Or have you ever been around an older woman, same thing -- who doesn’t realize that she’s aging. And isn’t aging gracefully. And she’s fighting the battle, and she’s trying to dress young and act young and talk young and look young. It never ends well. (They might shut the lights out on me at this point.) (laughter) So it is with Israel. Let’s get back to Israel. They were aging, they were dying, they were deteriorating. But because of their sin and their spiritual blindness, they didn’t even know it. They were still living in light of the old days, the glory days. But those days were long gone, and this day of reckoning and judgment was coming.

But it wasn’t just disobedience and decay that was plaguing Israel, it was also their pride. Look at verse 10, “Though the pride of Israel testifies against him, yet they have not returned to the Lord their God, nor have they sought Him, for all this.” If there is a capstone verse for Hosea 7, and for much of this book of the bible, that might be it. You know, even while God was performing this ‘holy heart surgery’ on His people, and exposing all these things about her -- her wickedness, her lying, her adultery, her murderous nature, her disobedience, her decay -- and though Israel was greatly weakened, and though this prideful nation’s nose was continually being rubbed in it, they still refused to repent. They still refused to acknowledge their sinful ways. They still refused to turn to the Lord, and the Lord calls them out for it here in verse 10. “Though the pride of Israel testifies against Him, yet they have not returned to the Lord their God, nor have they sought Him, for all this.”

Though being testified against by their pride, and though being convicted by their pride, Israel still wouldn’t repent, they still wouldn’t turn to the Lord. Turning to the Lord was still, nationally, apparently one of the furthest things from their thoughts. And the arrogance of this apostate nation, was once again coming back to haunt it. Their pride confronts them. Their pride testifies against them. But in their pride, they can’t see it.

Which leads to God’s next assessment of Israel in this chapter, which is its folly, or its foolishness. Look at verse 11, it says, “So Ephraim has become like a silly dove, without sense; they call to Egypt, they go to Assyria.” Hosea here uses another illustration, drawn from nature, to characterize Ephraim here in its sin. The people, he says, are like a “silly dove, without [sense], understanding”. The idea here of the silly dove is this otherwise innocent animal who’s just responding and listening to every beck and call, just uncertainly flying back and forth. Like a bat in an auditorium, you guys remember that. That’s a fitting picture of Ephraim which in this day and this time had been flitting back and forth between these two powerful nations, Assyria and Egypt. All while demonstrating no loyalty to God, to Yahweh, their Maker, to the one who loved them.

Later on this week you can study 2 Kings 17 where you’ll see one of the Israelite kings doing exactly what’s being described here. The king there is Hoshea (again not Hosea). And he’s paying tribute to, and seeking to link arms with, and associate himself and the nation with, both Assyria and with Egypt.
Now, neither one of those nations, Assyria or Egypt, ultimately help Ephraim. True help, true relief, true deliverance could only come from God Himself. But as we’ve just seen, the pride of Israel, verse 10, prevented them from returning to the Lord their God. Prevented them from returning to Him in repentance. Prevented them from seeking deliverance from Him. Instead, they sought to arrange all these foreign alliances with other nations, some of which were their natural enemies. Which was such a foolish maneuver. To seek to link arms with the country that’s trying to destroy you? Israel, really was a “silly dove.” And especially against the backdrop of the bigger problem that the nation was facing, namely her spiritual adultery, the state of her heart, the state of her soul. That’s what God was concerned with, and that’s why Ephraim, Israel, was about to face His judgment.

Now, before we get there, to Israel’s judgment, there is a lesson for us as Christians to take from this “silly dove” reference. And, by the way, preaching Hosea has been such a fun and interesting exercise for me. Because we’ve very much in the context of Israel, right? When we come here on Sunday nights, it’s as though we’re being transported to mid-8th century B.C. Northern Kingdom, and we can sometimes forget that we’re Christians. This is Christian scripture, right? So, every once in a while its good to be reminded that we are the Christian Church. This is Christian scripture. And there are Christian principles that we can draw from this text based on the unchanging character and nature of the God who’s referred to here.

So, the lesson about the fact that Israel was this “silly dove”, the application is we all have that tendency to grab onto various idolatrous desires which can flit around and we can chase after as believers today. And there are temptations that we’re tempted to go after, as they flitter around and we seek to pursue them. And we can be tempted to seek fulfillment in various things. For Israel it was Assyria and Egypt. For us it might be trends, it might be people, it might be relationships, it might be finances. You name it. Basically, in anything but God Himself. Well, if that’s our approach then we’re going to be like the “silly dove” referenced here in verse 11. We’re never going to find satisfaction. We’re never going to find fulfillment. We’re never going to find rest. And that’s because the one that we’re called to seek satisfaction and fulfillment and rest in is God Himself. That certainly what was happening here in Israel. They were like this restless, flitting, “silly dove” who could find rest in the God they were flying away from, but instead, they’re flying after all these other nations and people.

And now, the consequences, verse 12, are about to arrive. Look at verse 12, it says, “When they go, I will spread My net over them; I will bring them down like the birds of the sky.” See, Yahweh had had enough of Israel’s wickedness and its apostasy. So, right here He’s declaring, I’m about to intervene in judgment. While Israel was seeking out national and political alliances with the naivete of a dove, the Lord was about to approach them as this wise and well-equipped fowler to trap them. He was going to spread His net, it says, upon this people and bring them down. The Lord had no intention of allowing Israel to go on her silly way. They were about to become trapped in God’s net. Now, some have taken this verse, verse 12, when he says, “I will bring them down like the birds of the sky”, to mean that God simply loves Israel too much. As He spreads His net around her it’s like He won’t let her go. He’s sheltering her under His wing is kind of the idea.

Now, the fact that the Lord loves Israel, is evident in Hosea and all over the scriptures, but that’s not what’s happening here. God’s love for His people need not preclude Him from chastening or disciplining His people. And that’s what’s happening here. The end of verse 12, he says, “I will bring them down like the birds of the sky. I will chastise them in accordance with the proclamation to their assembly.” This is discipline. When He brings them into His net it’s not to shelter them under His wings, its to discipline them. And that word for discipline, “yasar,” often speaks of the loving instruction of a parent for his child as he disciplines them. Proverbs 29:17, “Correct your son, and he will give you comfort; he will also delight your soul.” That’s a principle that applies to God and His relationship with us as well. Hebrews 12:6, “For those whom the Lord loves He disciplines.” Here, verse 12, Yahweh is going to “chastise” Israel as He spreads His net over them, and “bring[s] them down like the birds of the sky.” And He also indicates that by what means He will chastise them. It says: “I will chastise them in accordance with the proclamation to their assembly.” Again, sort of a mysterious phrasing there. And there’s been debate as to what that refers to, this “proclamation to their assembly.” I take that to mean the giving of the Law in Deuteronomy. Through which Israel had come to know from the earliest days of its existence, in places like Deuteronomy 28 that they could go one of two ways. They could go down the path of redemption or they could go down the path of rebellion. They could go down the path of obedience or they could go down the path of disobedience.

And Israel, Ephraim, had chosen the path of disobedience. And so now, they’re being punished for it, the weight and the scope of which we feel in verse 13. Verse 13 says, “Woe to them, for they have strayed from Me! Destruction is theirs, for they have rebelled against Me! I would redeem them, but they speak lies against Me.” That verse, verse 13, identifies the Lord’s total chagrin over Israel having strayed, and rebelled, and spoken lies against Him. And for the people’s transgressions here, it says the Lord pronounces a “woe” upon them. And now, “woes” were words usually reserved for introducing judgment on the pagan nations that were seeking to overtake Israel. “Woes” were not usually for Israel, but for the world, the worldly nations. Isaiah 3:11, “Woe to the wicked! It will go badly with him, for what he deserves will be done to him.” Habakkuk 2:12, “Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed and founds a town with violence!”

But here in Hosea7:13, we have this ‘woe” being declared on Israel itself. “Woe to them,” it says, “for they have strayed from Me! Destruction is theirs, for they have rebelled against Me!” And in Israel’s case, this “woe” was well-deserved. God clearly, it says here, desired to “redeem them”, that’s at the end of verse 13, to ransom them, to rescue them. Meaning in the context to deliver them from their coming invaders. He says plainly in verse 13, “I would redeem them.” But Israel through its treachery had rejected God’s offer of redemption. Instead, they chose to rebel against the Lord. It says, “for they have strayed from Me! Destruction is theirs, for they have rebelled against Me!” And they did so in all the various ways that we’ve looked at this evening and in our earlier sermons in this series. Namely, their acts of spiritual harlotry and adultery. But not only that, it says, “they speak lies against Me.” That’s also at the end of verse 13 which in the context likely refers to Israel’s practical denial of God’s ability to redeem them. Living and acting as though God could not or would not deliver them.

God has even more though to say to this wicked people. Not only had Israel rebelled. Not only had Israel spoken lies against God. Look at what comes next, in verse 14, “And they do not cry to Me from their heart when they wail on their beds; for the sake of grain and new wine they assemble themselves, they turn away from Me.” Israel’s rejection of the Lord is further illustrated here. And we’re right back to where we started this evening with this idea of false repentance and crocodile tears. The people of Israel were wailing and crying out loud. But they’re just pretending. They were pretending to worship the Lord when, in fact, their hearts belonged to their idols. They may actually have been physically wailing. They may have actually been physically crying. And crying on their actual beds. Which calls to mind David flooding his bed with tears in Psalm 6. But unlike David, the wails of these wailers in Hosea’s day weren’t coming from truly contrite hearts. It says, “they do not cry to Me from their heart when they wail on their beds.” Rather, these wails were coming from some place of habit or custom or routine. And as we see here, some desire to receive God’s blessing in terms of grain and new wine, that they wanted to grow and cultivate. In other words, they didn’t want to starve. They wanted to eat. They wanted to drink. And when the going got tough, that’s when they decided maybe we should cry a little bit and see if we can regain God’s favor.

And at the end of verse 14, we see these jarring words, “they turn away from Me.” Those words could also be rendered, “they departed from Me.” Which sounds a lot like what Hosea said about Gomer back in Hosea 2:13, when he says, “she forgot Me.” The thought continues on in verse 15, He says, “Although I trained and strengthened their arms, yet they devise evil against Me.” See, Israel’s rebellion also revealed her ingratitude. To get some context for this, flip over with me, if you will, to Hosea 11, which we’ll be in, in a few weeks here. Look at Hosea 11 -- as we see back in Hosea 7:15 saying they’re “devis[ing] evil against Me” -- look at the God that they are devising evil against. Hosea 11:1, “When Israel was a youth I loved him, and out of Egypt I called My son. The more they called them, the more they went from them; they kept sacrificing to the Baals and burning incense to idols. Yet it is I who taught Ephraim to walk, I took them in My arms; But they did not know that I healed them. I led them with cords of a man, with bonds of love, and I became to them as one who lifts the yoke from their jaws; and I bent down and fed them.” So, going back to chapter 7, despite being cared for and shepherded and tended to and protected by Yahweh throughout its history, Israel is now treating God like an enemy. Devising evil against Him, it says. She had become a turncoat. And the degree of Israel’s reprehensibility is really almost too much to fathom.

Then we see in verse 16 these concluding words of condemnation in this chapter. Verse 16 says, “They turn, but not upward, they are like a deceitful bow; their princes will fall by the sword because of the insolence of their tongue. This will be their derision in the land of Egypt.” Now, those first few words, “They turn, but not upward,” that’s referring to some halfway form of repentance which Israel was known for by this time, where they felt bad or they looked bad. And it related to some aspect of their sin, and more specifically, the consequences of their sin, more so than the reality and the problem and the root of their sin. And so they turn from that sin for some short period of time and stop doing the bad thing, basically. But look what it says, they never truly turn upward. That is, they never fully turn to God. The crocodile tears only take them so far.

Then, Yahweh describes Israel this way, “they are like a deceitful bow,” a faulty bow. We’re talking bow and arrows here. An unreliable bow. They were like a bow which no matter how well aimed or targeted it was, it’s off the mark, it prohibits arrows from hitting their target. This was a bow that was bound to fail the archer in battle, as the arrows fell at the feet of the enemy. And that’s what happened with Israel. Because of their spiritual compromise, because of their spiritual adultery, they were unreliable, they were undependable. They were incapable of accomplishing or achieving their purpose. They were “a deceitful bow.” We see similar language, by the way, in Psalm 78:56. Psalm 78:56 says, “Yet they tempted and rebelled against the Most High God and did not keep His testimonies, but turned back and acted treacherously like their fathers; they turned aside like a treacherous bow. For they provoked Him with their high places and aroused His jealousy with their graven images. When God heard, He was filled with wrath and greatly abhorred Israel.”

Back to Hosea 7:16, the text says, “their princes will fall by the sword because of the insolence of their tongue.” We saw this morning in James that words can be like sword thrusts. Well, here we’re seeing that words actually cause sword thrusts as swords were thrust into the bodies of some princes who were being very unwise in their use of their tongue. We don’t have much to go on here. We don’t know exactly what the tongue was doing in this situation. Could have been an unfulfilled promise. Could have been aggressive words of combat. We just don’t know. But what we do know is what we remember from this morning, Proverbs 18:21, which is that “death and life” including in the case of these princes, physical life, “are in the power of the tongue.”

And then finally it says, verse 16, “ this will be their derision in the land of Egypt.” They refused to return to God so they would experience even more chastisement from the hand of God. They would be derided, they would be ridiculed, by the very pagan nations to whom they were running for help. A humiliating ending for a wayward people who needed to be humbled.

Well, as we close our time for this evening. I’d like us to come back to one aspect of Israel’s condition as we see described here in the book of Hosea. Which is that we see in verse 14… we’re going to just at the very end here look a bit at verse 14 again and verse 16. In verse 14 we see they had turned away from God, “they turn away from Me,” it says. And that when they turned verse 16 says, when they turn back to Him it says, “They turn, but not upward.” And that’s a danger, even in our day. That there would be people that call themselves the people of God, who would identify themselves as having been chosen by God. And who gather and assemble and worship with the other people of God. But then sin of whatever type enters the picture. And sin will and does enter the picture of any follower of Christ, during our lives and our walks in Christ. So, when sin enters the picture, when the temptation arises, what do you do? Where do you go, what do you turn to? Do you turn away from God and give in completely to your sin, as the Israelites did? Do you turn to other things, sort of substitutes, for your sin? Better things than the thing that you’re entrapped in? Or participating in? To sort of mask your sin? To make yourself feel better about your sin? To justify your sin, as the Israelites did? But you don’t ever look upward or turn upward? Or do you turn to God? Running to the One who has saved you and has redeemed you. Running to the One who does love you and has purchased you. Not leaking out a few crocodile tears, but truly demonstrating godly grief, as you repent of your sin and you turn from your sin, and walk in a manner worthy of your calling.

I pray of those three options -- just giving yourself over to your sin -- or substituting something else for your sin but not turning upward -- or repenting of that sin, and turning to Christ daily as you seek to be renewed in Him. But that latter one would be the one we are all striving for. That latter one, running to Him, repenting of sin, putting on holiness, putting off unrighteousness, by the power of the Spirit who indwells us, that that would be the practice and the pattern of the lives of everyone in here this evening.

So, that’s the message for this evening, Hosea 7 is it, that’s it for tonight. We’re halfway through the book. And if I remember right, we started this back in September, we’re now in February. There have been a few breaks along the way, but we’re on track. I think we’ll finish up Hosea by the summer and then we’ll be into Jonah.

Alright, let me pray. Lord, thank You for Your word. Thank You again for its clarity, its power, its purpose. Thank You that it is sufficient, that it’s inerrant. That in it, that we have all that we need pertaining to life and to godliness. Thank You for a book like Hosea, though written so many years ago to the people of Israel, though it seems in some ways to be abstract, and in some ways it can be difficult to decipher. Thank You that it is a true word, it’s a sure word. That there is nothing in it that’s wrong or in error or unuseful for us today. May we be wise as we continue on with our study of this book. Mining from the text the eternal truths that You want us to know. Thank You for these dear people. Thank You the day spent with them around Your word and in fellowship. I pray that You would go before us this week, and be greatly glorified in our labors for Your name. It’s in Jesus’ name we pray. Amen