The Pride of Israel Testifies to His Face – Hosea 7

Where have we seen pride in the Evangelical church?  We see it in our willingness to represent God as hating those we believe are sinners.  We see it in our inability to see how angry we have become toward those who deviate from our view of what is right.  We see it in our lack of compassion for the lost.  Our pride testifies to our face.

When I would heal Israel, the iniquity of Ephraim is revealed, and the evil deeds of Samaria; for they deal falsely; the thief breaks in, and the bandits raid outside.  But they do not consider that I remember all their evil.  Now their deeds surround them; they are before my face.  By their evil they make the king glad, and the princes by their treachery.  They are all adulterers; they are like a heated oven whose baker ceases to stir 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 mockers.  For with hearts like an oven they approach their intrigue; all night their anger smolders; in the morning it blazes like a flaming fire.  All of them are hot as an oven, and they devour their rulers.  All their kings have fallen, and none of them calls upon me.

Ephraim mixes himself with the peoples; Ephraim is a cake not turned.  Strangers devour his strength, and he knows it not; gray hairs are sprinkled upon him, and he knows it not.  The pride of Israel testifies to his face; yet they do not return to the LORD their God, nor seek him, for all this.

Ephraim is like a dove, silly and without sense, calling to Egypt, going to Assyria.  As they go, I will spread over them my net; I will bring them down like birds of the heavens; I will discipline them according to the report made to their congregation.  Woe to them, for they have strayed from me!  Destruction to them, for they have rebelled against me! I would redeem them, but they speak lies against me.

They do not cry to me from the heart, but they wail upon their beds; for grain and wine they gash themselves; they rebel against me.  Although I trained and strengthened their arms, yet they devise evil against me.  They return, but not upward; they are like a treacherous bow; their princes shall fall by the sword because of the insolence of their tongue.  This shall be their derision in the land of Egypt.  (Hosea 7 ESV)

Yahweh wants to heal Israel but her incorrigible sin makes it impossible.  He likens her to:

1) a heated oven – Israel is hot for sin and heated in dealing with each other, with intrigue among the royal house boiling over.  In point of fact, four of Israel’s last 6 kings were assassinated  before she was conquered and the people exiled.

2) an incompletely cooked cake – Israel was unpalatable to Yahweh yet nevertheless devoured by those around her.  She was proud but not realizing she had aged, weak but still refusing to turn to Yahweh.

3) a silly dove – Israel was flying between Egypt and Assyria, the two world powers, trying in vain to play them so as to not fall victim to either, but God would net the bird and discipline them.  He wanted to redeem them but they continued to speak evil of Him.

4) a treacherous bow – Like a bow that could not be trusted to shoot an arrow, so Israel pretended to call on Yahweh but rebelled against Him.  Though He had trained them for war they turned against Him and now would have to be judged.

In the same way we can become unrepentant, undesirable, foolish and useless, but God still wants to restore us if we will turn back to Him.