Hosea 7, in a most solemn description, follows up the same proof and reproof of sin against them all, and shows that, spite of the patient mercy and touching appeals of God, they would only get worse and worse. The day of deliverance was as yet far off. God’s intervention in goodness only manifested the people’s sin. “When I would have healed Israel, then the iniquity of Ephraim was discovered, and the evils of Samaria; for they practice falsehood (cf. John 3); and the thief cometh in, a troop of robbers plundereth without. And they say not to their hearts, I remember all their wickedness: now their own doings encompass them; they are before My face. They have made the king glad with their wickedness, and the princes with their lies” (vss. 1-3).
What can be more graphic, though somewhat obscure from the singular compression of the style and rapid changes in figure, than the description which follows in Hosea 7:4-74They are all adulterers, as an oven heated by the baker, who ceaseth from raising after he hath kneaded the dough, until it be leavened. 5In the day of our king the princes have made him sick with bottles of wine; he stretched out his hand with scorners. 6For 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. 7They 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. (Hosea 7:4‑7), where the heart burns with the fire of passion, and indulgence and flattery furnish fuel? “They are all adulterers, as an oven heated by the baker, who ceaseth from raising after he hath kneaded the dough, until it be leavened. In the day of our king the princes have made him sick with bottles of wine; he stretched out his hand with scorners. 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. 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.” Ephraim is shown to have been mixed up among the nations to the dishonor of Jehovah. There might have been some hope, if he had judged such a self-willed slight and confusion and had repented; but he is become “a cake not turned” (vs. 8). Therefore, it is only a question of getting so burnt as to be good for nothing. “Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knoweth it not: yea, gray hairs are sprinkled about on him, and he knoweth it not” (vs. 9). It was plain enough their heathen idols were proving their ruin. “And the pride of Israel testifieth to his face; but they turn not to Jehovah their God, nor seek Him for all this.” This is confirmed in verse 11 by the proof of their folly. The gray hairs beginning to show themselves here and there held out no promise of a crown of honor for his head—far from it. They were but the sign of death working decrepitude, and of distance from God. Hence it is said: “Ephraim also is like a silly dove without heart: they call to Egypt, they go to Assyria” (vs. 11). That is, they look anywhere and everywhere rather than to God. Jehovah had dealt with them, no doubt, punishing them in His retributive righteousness.
No Cry to God
Hence it is said, “As they go, I will spread My net upon them; I will bring them down as the fowls of the heaven; I will chastise them, as their congregation hath heard. Woe unto them! for they have fled from Me: destruction unto them! because they have transgressed against Me: though I have redeemed them, yet they have spoken lies against Me. And they have not cried unto Me with their heart, when they howled upon their beds: they assemble themselves for corn and wine, and they rebel against Me. Though I have bound and strengthened their arms, yet do they imagine mischief against Me. They return, but not to the Most High: they are like a deceitful bow: their princes shall fall by the sword for the rage of their tongue: this shall be their derision in the land of Egypt” (vss. 12-16). Egypt, to which they called in vain, not only fails them, as against Assyria, but mocks at their captivity and ruin. Such is the world against God’s guilty people. Whatever favors God gave them, they turned against Him; whatever judgments He sent against them, they never cried to Him. How dreadful was their condition when justly given up to their folly and its punishment! “They have not cried unto Me” (vs. 14), He says, “from their heart.” They cried out when punished, but they never cried to God with their heart when they howled from their beds. Judgment had no more moral effect upon them than mercy.