Hosea 7

Seeking help from the world

Hosea 7:1 When I would have healed Israel, then the iniquity of Ephraim was discovered, and the wickedness of Samaria: for they commit falsehood; and the thief cometh in, and the troop of robbers spoileth without.

God was ready to heal Israel, but they hung onto their iniquity, their desire to sin and their wickedness of loving false gods. They were liars and the thief comes in and robbers go out from them looting in the streets.

Hosea 4:17 Ephraim is joined to idols: let him alone.

Isa 28:1 Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim, whose glorious beauty is a fading flower, which are on the head of the fat valleys of them that are overcome with wine!
Isa 28:2 Behold, the Lord hath a mighty and strong one, which as a tempest of hail and a destroying storm, as a flood of mighty waters overflowing, shall cast down to the earth with the hand.
Isa 28:3 The crown of pride, the drunkards of Ephraim, shall be trodden under feet:
Isa 28:4 And the glorious beauty, which is on the head of the fat valley, shall be a fading flower, and as the hasty fruit before the summer; which when he that looketh upon it seeth, while it is yet in his hand he eateth it up.

Hosea 7:2 And they consider not in their hearts that I remember all their wickedness: now their own doings have beset them about; they are before my face.

Psa 90:8 Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance.

Luke 12:2 For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known.

Deu 32:28 For they are a nation void of counsel, neither is there any understanding in them.
Deu 32:29 O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end!

Hosea 7:3 They make the king glad with their wickedness, and the princes with their lies.

Micah 7:3 That they may do evil with both hands earnestly, the prince asketh, and the judge asketh for a reward; and the great man, he uttereth his mischievous desire: so they wrap it up.

Hosea 7:4 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.

They are all adulterers, always aflame with lust. They are like an oven that is kept hot even while the baker is still kneading the dough. (NLT)

Two words stand out to me. They are "hot: like an oven, full of lusts and they have their hands in dough, "leaven" is as sin. They could not keep their hands and eyes away from their adulteries.

Mat 5:29 And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.
Mat 5:30 And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.

Hosea 7:5 In the day of our king the princes have made him sick with bottles of wine; he stretched out his hand with scorners.

"On royal holidays, the princes get drunk. The king makes a fool of himself and drinks with those who are making fun of him. (NLT)

He drank with those who mocked God.

Rom 16:17 Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them.
Rom 16:18 For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple.

Hosea 7:6 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.
Hosea 7:7 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.

They lusted after their idols, their drunken parties and the lusts of the flesh. They hated authority and God's righteousness. They did not need him for they were spiritual adulterers.

Isa 43:21 This people have I formed for myself; they shall show forth my praise.
Isa 43:22 But thou hast not called upon me, O Jacob; but thou hast been weary of me, O Israel.

Hosea 7:8 Ephraim, he hath mixed himself among the people; Ephraim is a cake not turned.

Ephraim or Israel, the Northern kingdom, has mixed itself with foreign gods and are as a half baked cake. We hear the expression " half baked", like a half baked idea, not thought out, incomplete, foolishly made, ill conceived, undisciplined. Leaving behind their God, all became foolishness and vain.

Hosea 7:9 Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knoweth it not: yea, gray hairs are here and there upon him, yet he knoweth not.

Worshiping foreign gods had sapped their strength, but they don’t even know it. Israel is like an old man with graying hair, unaware of how weak and old he has become. (NLT)

Every time I go to the barber, I accuse him of throwing old man hair on the white lap apron. I feel young, but something's are not the same. Life keeps going, the clock is ticking and many of my friends have passed on or have grown old. Israel was going about life, living as the spiritually dead. Soon they would find themselves in a foreign land with their freedoms taken from them. This lifestyle is common in our nation too, people seem blind to the outcome of their turning away from God and they are becoming slaves to their choices.

Rom 1:21 Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
Rom 1:22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,

Hosea 7:10 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.

Pride keeps them from returning to their God; hardly anything to be proud about. I have seen proud atheists too.

Prov 11:2 When pride cometh, then cometh shame: but with the lowly is wisdom.

Prov 16:18 Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.
Prov 16:19 Better it is to be of an humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud.

Hosea 7:11 Ephraim also is like a silly dove without heart: they call to Egypt, they go to Assyria.

Like the foolish women who follow false teachers and false gods.

2 Tim 3:5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.
2 Tim 3:6 For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts,
2 Tim 3:7 Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

They were courting countries that could not protect them from God's correction. They are under his correction, guidance and protection and he will curse any nation who comes against them apart from his will. We had better be in the will of God and support Israel.

Hosea 7:12 When they shall 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.
Hosea 7:13 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.
Hosea 7:14 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.

They do not cry out to me with sincere hearts. Instead, they sit on their couches and wail. They cut themselves, begging foreign gods for crops and prosperity. (NLT)

An adulterous people turns to wine and fornication to satisfy their wicked hearts. They did not cry out to God, confessing their sins, instead they spoke lies against God and rebelled.

Hosea 7:15 Though I have bound and strengthened their arms, yet do they imagine mischief against me.

People may be healed and restored to good health and strength, but if their heart is not right with God, they will still die in their sins. People want the things that supposedly make for success: riches, possessions, power and fame. Soon enough it becomes a character problem, for if the heart is not right with God, He may withhold His blessings and they get deeper into spiritual bondage.

Psa 1:1 Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.
Psa 1:2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.
Psa 1:3 And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
Psa 1:4 The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.
Psa 1:5 Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.
Psa 1:6 For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.
Hosea 7:16 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.

They are like a deceitful bow, or a faulty bow that does not shoot straight, just as they miss the mark with their adulterous lives because they do not return to their LORD. Their princes who complain and blame God with their many words, they shall be silenced when overcome by the sword. The land of Egypt where they ran to for adultery and protection despised them. Listen now, if we run from God and get deep into the world's sin, the world will despise you for being a hypocrite and a poor example of a follower of God. Be true to your calling; the world doesn't need more empty people without purpose, they need the hope that you have in The Lord Jesus Christ.