WWUTT 2239 Like a Cake Unturned (Hosea 7:1-16)

Israel had come into this attitude that God didn't really see their sin, nor did He really even think it was all that bad, so that they would have their passions. But God's judgment would come upon them soon, when we understand the text.

This is When We Understand the Text, a daily Bible commentary to help encourage your time in the Word. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday we feature New Testament Study, an Old Testament book on Thursday, and our Q &A on Friday.

Now here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe.

Hosea as a Picture of Israel’s Unfaithfulness

Thank you, Becky. Well, being Thursday, we come back to our study in Hosea, and this week we are in Chapter 7. Just to kind of recap what we've read here in our study of Hosea, it begins with God telling a prophet named Hosea to take a wife of harlotry.

So he marries a woman named Gomer, who is faithful to him at first, bears him a son, but then she goes and jumps into the beds of other men and has children with them. And so Hosea says he's going to cut her off and her offspring, but ultimately he forgives her and receives her back to himself.

And this is supposed to be a picture of the way that God will deal with Israel. When we went through Isaiah, that was mostly prophecy concerning Judah. What we're reading in Hosea is mostly prophecy concerning Israel, although Judah comes into this as well.

God is going to punish Israel because of their unfaithfulness to him. They have whored themselves out with false gods and with the pagans. And so God is going to turn them over to their enemies, but he will still be faithful to his promise, and his people will still be saved through the line of Judah.

And so that's why Judah will come up occasionally in the prophecy. They too will be dealt with, but they will be sustained, and the Messiah will still come from Israel through that particular tribe. Now, as we come into chapter 7 today, this is just like the chapter we looked at last week.

Chapter 6 was divided into two parts. So will chapter 7 be. And I'll explain that here in a moment, but let's go ahead and read through the first seven verses, which I'm doing from the Legacy Standard Bible.

Hear the word of the Lord. When I would heal Israel, then the iniquity of Ephraim is uncovered, and the evil deeds of Samaria, for they work falsehood. The thief enters in. Raiders ransack outside. And they do not say to their hearts that I remember all their evil.

Now their deeds are all around them. They are before my face. With their evil they make the king glad, and the princes with their deceptions. 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 draw near in 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 devour their judges. All their kings have fallen. None of them calls on me. Now here is how Hosea 7 is divided up.

You saw the various references to oven here. When we get to the second half, there's going to be a reference to what is in the oven. So this first half is about how Israel would never turn back to God.

They had this idea in their minds that God can't even see their sin anyway, so he's not going to judge us, nor does it cross their minds that they need to turn back to him. They are aloof in all of this, and they're like an oven.

They burn with fire. Their passions burn within them, but it will also be the very thing that consumes them. In the second half, you have a reference to something that is in the oven, and it is a cake.

It is burned on one side, and it's good on the other side because it's as if the baker has put a cake into this oven and forgotten to turn it. And so the burned side represents the passions that are consuming them, the wicked idolatry that burns in their hearts.

The uncooked side of this cake represents the love that they have for God. Well, the love that they claim they have for God. We'll put it that way. They do practice all their religion, all of the things that they think that they're supposed to do, and they have an attitude about God that he's like the pagan gods.

Whenever pagans would try to appease their gods, they'll do their little sacrifices and their rituals so that the gods will not be angry with them. Well, Israel is regarding God the same way. They're thinking of him as like one of the pagan gods.

So they'll do their religious rituals to try to appease him, and they think they're outsmarting God in this way, but their heart is not genuinely for the Lord. It's not an actual well-made cake. It's burned on one side.

It's unfinished on the other. It's not good. No one can eat it. And so though they may have this appearance of making something good, it's really unfinished. Nothing is worth saving. God will throw it all out, and he will only save by his mercy, not because Israel deserves it, but because God will show compassion on whom he will show compassion.

So let's come back to the start of Hosea 7 here as we work through this. We start in verse 1. Now, remember, Ephraim is the tribe that's right in the middle of the northern kingdom. The northern ten tribes of Israel make up that northern kingdom that is called Israel.

And so sometimes the word Ephraim is substituted in for Israel. Now, we know a common kind of poetry that is used in Hebrew literature is the parallelism. So you'll have the same thing said twice in two different lines.

When I would heal Israel, then the iniquity of Ephraim is uncovered. So really you have Israel mentioned twice in two lines, Israel and Ephraim. There you have a couple more parallelisms. The evil deeds of Samaria, for they work falsehood.

You have evil deeds and falsehood. Then the next parallelism. The thief enters in, raiders ransack outside. You have the thief entering in, raiders ransacking the outside. So it's showing the totality of the depravity that is taking place.

Thieves inside, raiders outside. There is no part of this that is not being afflicted by the evil that Israel perpetrates. Now their deeds are all around them. They are before my face. So Israel has this attitude that God won't see it.

He won't even see what it is that we do. Consider these words in Malachi 2 .17. You have wearied Yahweh with your words. But you say, how have we wearied him? In that you say, everyone who does evil is good in the sight of Yahweh, and he delights in them.

Or, where is this God of justice? So one of the things that that passage represents there in Malachi 2 .17 is the dual nature in the heart of Israel. This idea that they're thinking of God in one of two ways.

Either he delights in our evil. He actually likes this evil that we do. They wouldn't call it evil, of course. But they're doing that which God has said in his law he hates. And they've convinced themselves, no, it's okay in the eyes of God.

That's one way they approach it. The second way is, God doesn't see it anyway. Where is this God of justice? He's never going to bring punishment on us. So therefore we can't really be doing anything all that bad.

Now that very approach that Israel takes to their sin that is not too unlike what we see, even in our culture around us today, and I'll be even more specific than that, within those places that call themselves the church, you see this very thing.

God delights in what it is that we are doing. He delights when we act like the world. When we adopt the policies and the politics of the left. When we fly even pride flags. Or maybe we don't go as far as flying a pride flag, but we're going to be accepting of LGBTQ people.

We'll let them do what it is that they do because God loves them anyway. And we're just wanting to show God's love to others. Not calling out any sin, except repudiating the people who will tell them that they are in sin, and they need to repent because they're going against God's word.

Yeah, we'll hate those people. We'll call them out for their sin, but they'll love sinners, not loving sinners in the way that Jesus did, but letting them have their sin and continuing to encourage them in that as well.

It's not really love. It is ushering them their way to destruction. So they're just like that first picture there in Malachi 2 .17, of saying everyone who does evil is good in the eyes of Yahweh, and he delights in them.

There are preachers out there who are actually saying that God delights in gay marriage. And they try to push that not only on their people, but on the culture, to be liked by the culture, so that they will be welcomed by the culture, and their church fills up with people.

Sure, it won't last, of course, because once you make the church look like the world, then what's the point of the church? So eventually, even those places will fizzle out. But they, in the meantime, will push this false doctrine and encourage people in sin that God has promised that he will judge.

And they weary the Lord with their words. No matter how much they want to say that they are loving, and affectionate, and caring for people, God hates this, and he will destroy them. And then there's the other side of that, where you have the statement of where is this God of justice?

If God really was just, well, he would punish us for doing what it is that we do. So because there is no recourse against the actions that we have chosen, the words that we say, the outreach or the charity that we do, then God is not really going to bring this against us.

And so therefore, we must be doing the right thing. And that's a couple of ways that you see even churches today behaving in the midst of a crooked and depraved generation. And so here, this is the way Israel is acting.

It's like they're repeating the same sins of Israel. There are churches that do even far worse than just those couple of examples that I have given. Churches that do fly the pride flags, that do have drag queens that will come into their services and congregations.

I've seen those videos online. Churches that will actually engage in sexual immorality, and maybe not one of those pro-LGBTQ churches, but you've got pastors that will become adulterers, and the church won't even do anything to discipline them.

And that behavior is not only exhibited from the man who's in the pulpit, but then all the people that are in the congregation begin to repeat those things as well. And you will see all these wicked sins that you would find in the world, certainly, but here you find them right there in the church.

And the people believing that God delights in them, and he's just going to forgive whatever they do anyway. So they do not say in their hearts that God remembers evil. But the Lord says, rest of verse 2, their deeds are all around them, and they are before my face.

God does see, and he will deal. Verse 3, with their evil, they make the king glad, and their princes with their deceptions. So they're appealing to worldly people, or fleshly-minded people would be the way to put that instead.

So they make the king glad with their evil. It is wicked from the top down. They are looking for rulers and leaders that are going to let them have the sins and the wickedness that they have. But at the same time, you also see at the top of this, the very guy who's leading them in their procession of debauchery is the king himself.

They should be living their lives in such a way to please God. But instead, they please this man who, likewise, is going after his own carnal appetites. Verse 4, 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.

Now, there is a fire that is burning in this oven. What does it mean, then, that the baker ceases to stir up the fire? Well, he's not working it. So he's not harnessing it or using it in the right way.

And instead, it just becomes a flame of passion. And that's all that's being accomplished by this work. There is a fire that is there. It's not being properly tempered. We all have a fire that would be burning within us, but how is it being channeled?

How is it being used? Remember that the apostle Paul said to Timothy, to fan into flame the gift of God which is in you. And so if Timothy doesn't fan that flame, if he doesn't feed it and stir it up and help it to grow and burn in the right way, then it will either burn out, or it will become a fire that burns towards something in a very unhealthy manner.

And that's what's going on in Israel. The fire is burning, but it is a fire of passion that will eventually consume them. It will burn whatever is in the oven instead of properly baking, instead of being used and harnessed in the right way.

So the baker doesn't stir the fire from the kneading of the dough until it is leavened. And then verse 5,. They have aligned themselves with the wicked who fill themselves up with wine and get drunk and feed their fleshly appetites.

They go with the scoffers, those people who would mock God. And that's who Israel is aligning with.

Verse 6,.

The fire smolders all night. In the morning, it burns like a flaming fire. All of them are hot like an oven, and they devour their judges. All their kings have fallen. None of them calls on me. We saw this last week also in chapter 6, that the flame of passion that burns within them for sin, for wickedness, is not just in terms of sexual immorality.

It's even in their hatred for each other. And so they will devour one another. They will destroy those who are supposed to be judges and keeping peace and working things toward justice. They will destroy them so that they might have the evil that they so desire.

Ephraim Becomes a Cake Not Turned

Now that is the first half of Hosea 7. Let's work through the second half here. Verse 8,. Ephraim mixes himself with the peoples. Ephraim has become a cake not turned. So we have this oven with the fire burning inside it.

It's not properly being stirred. Whatever is put into the oven is not properly being tended. So you have a cake that is put in the oven, and one side of it is going to burn. And it will be useless. The whole cake will be no good then at that point because it is not properly being cared for.

Verse 9,. Strangers devour his power, yet he does not know it. Gray hairs also are sprinkled on him, yet he does not know it. He has given himself over to strangers, the pagans that are around him, and doesn't realize that his strength has been devoured by those strangers.

And so when war comes or when an enemy comes to devour, he won't be able to fight back. His strength is gone. All that he had possessed he spent on the passions to whore himself out with all these false gods and their pagan practices.

Gray hairs also sprinkled on him, yet he does not know it. He is aging. His time is growing short, and he doesn't realize it. Verse 10,. So the pride of Israel answers against him, yet they have not returned to Yahweh their God, nor have they sought him for all of this.

That connects this section with the previous where as it was said there, they don't seek God. And the parallel here is that this is the second verse of the second section, just like it was said in the second verse of the first section.

They do not say to their hearts that I remember all their evil. So here, the pride of Israel answers against them, yet they have not returned to Yahweh their God, nor have they sought him for all of this.

Going on. Verse 11,. So Ephraim has become like a silly dove without a heart of wisdom. They call to Egypt. They go to Assyria. They turn to these pagan places, even the place where they had once been delivered out of, Egypt, and the place that they are going to be delivered into, Assyria.

They are turning to these kingdoms for their help instead of turning to God. We're seeing that happen in America, aren't we? Instead of turning to godly individuals who would turn us toward the Lord and away from the sin that we are in, people are thinking that our saviors are going to be these wicked politicians.

And whether you're looking at the right or you're looking at the left, as far as the political spectrum right now, coming in on an election here in the United States of America, you see two very evil candidates.

And people are thinking these candidates are going to save us. They don't turn to the godly, who, again, the godly would turn them toward the Lord. America is not turning back to Christ. That's who America needs to turn to.

And this is the case for any nation. I'm just saying you are watching this happen in real time, even in our present day, just as Israel had done in the past, so it's happening even now in the present.

Verse 12,. 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 report to their congregation. So God is going to bring judgment on them, and it won't be without warning.

They will have been told they should have known it was coming. Woe to them, verse 13, for they have fled from me. Destruction is theirs, for they have transgressed against me. And I would redeem them, but they speak lies against me.

They won't turn to me. They continue to blaspheme God and act like God does not see, nor will he judge. Verse 14,. And they do not cry out to me in their heart when they wail on their beds for the sake of grain and new wine they gather together as sojourners.

They depart from me. So there's a mourning that happens in Israel, but it's not a mourning that leads to repentance. It leads to their destruction. Verse 15,. Although I disciplined and strengthened their arms, yet they devise evil against me.

Everything that they possess is because God has blessed them. But just like we all do with our sin, we take that which God has given to us and we exalt ourselves and blaspheme God with it instead. Verse 16,.

They turn but not upward. They are like a deceitful bow. Their princes will fall by the sword because of the indignation of their tongue. This will be their scoffing in the land of Egypt. The very place that they had been delivered out of will be the place that they return to in their hearts because they have gone back to being enslaved by their passions and these false gods instead of enjoying the freedom that is offered us only in Christ.

And so my friends, do not continue to go back to your sin over and over again and think that God will not judge and He does not see. For all of your sins are laid before Him and He will render to each person according to their works as Jesus promised in the book of Revelation.

So turn from your sin to the Lord Jesus Christ and He will forgive you. Do not continue in trespass that you may fall into judgment. Heavenly Father, we thank you for what we've read and I pray it would be a serious reminder to us all that you take sin seriously.

It is not something that you merely shrug at. We would presume on the kindness of God that you're just going to forgive us. By your grace, you do not see nor will you judge. And how evil it is to say such a blasphemous thing of God.

You have said that you will judge. So may we not continue in that way that would lead to judgment but bring us to the path of righteousness that we may walk in the way of Christ. We may be delivered from our sins now and walk in that deliverance until the day of the Lord.

Lead us in paths of righteousness for your namesake. Forgive us our sins. It's in Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

This has been When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabriel Hughes. For all of our podcasts, episodes, videos, books, and more visit our website at www .utt .com. If you'd like to submit a question to this broadcast or just send us a comment email whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com and let your friends know about our ministry.

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