This post by christinecoltman was originally published at GRACE PLACE
Hosea 6:4 – 7:16
A few things before we start. This is a tough passage, as those of you who did the study will have seen. This is Scripture holding up a mirror to our hearts and lives, which we know are messy and imperfect. So as we journey together this evening it will not be a comfortable time. Tonight is a time to take stock and reflect on where you are with God and what might need to change in your heart which is never fun.
But spoiler alert! God does not leave us in the depths of Hosea. There is Good News, so hang on in there.
This is short passage with strange images and unusual descriptions, so this evening I am going to go through it and pull out what was meant when God was speaking to Ephraim and Judah. And before we all relax too much and think ‘at least we are not like that’, we will go back over and see what God might be saying to us today and what we need to do as a result.
So where are we? Let’s set the scene.
Those of you who were with us last month will remember that Jill had left us with hope.
I’m reading from the Message which I think brings a different feel to the passage.
(6:1-3) “Come on, let’s go back to God.
He hurt us, but he’ll heal us.
He hit us hard,
but he’ll put us right again.
In a couple of days we’ll feel better.
By the third day he’ll have made us brand-new,
Alive and on our feet,
fit to face him.
We’re ready to study God,
eager for God-knowledge.
As sure as dawn breaks,
so sure is his daily arrival.
He comes as rain comes,
as spring rain refreshing the ground.”
The people are talking; they feel confident that they are back on track and ready to move forward with God.
But then God speaks:
Hosea 6: 4-7
“What am I to do with you, Ephraim?
What do I make of you, Judah?
Your declarations of love last no longer
than morning mist and predawn dew.
That’s why I use prophets to shake you to attention,
why my words cut you to the quick:
To wake you up to my judgment
blazing like light.
I’m after love that lasts, not more religion.
I want you to know God, not go to more prayer meetings.
You broke the covenant—just like Adam!
You broke faith with me—ungrateful wretches!“
God is despairing over the people. They are fickle; they claim to love him but this just doesn’t last, like morning mist or dew on a hot day, it soon evaporates. He used prophets to try and give them a proverbial slap in the face to wake them up to stop them sleep walking into destruction, using words that cut to the heart so that they would know the depths of their sin. God longs to be gracious and bless them, but he can’t as He is holy and just and they are continuing to sin against him which can’t be over looked. Blessing them whilst they continue in their sin would not be loving as they would never learn, continuing to miss out on the true joy of worshipping God.
This part of Hosea is like a court case. In our passage tonight God sets out his case and lays the charges against His people. Next month Hannah will continue this and move on to the judgement and punishment God will send.
God has got to the end of his tether with Ephraim and Judah, enough is enough and then comes a little phrase which, as you think about it, becomes more and more terrifying.
“I have seen a horrible thing in Israel:
there Ephraim is given to prostitution,
Israel is defiled.
‘Also for you, Judah,
a harvest is appointed”.
‘A harvest is appointed’. ‘As you sow so you shall reap’. ‘What goes around comes around’. Or even ‘the chickens are coming home to roost!’.
You are going to get what you deserve! Ponder on that for a minute!! What do your actions this week deserve? And as Hosea will show, it is not just what you do… Maybe you were kind and helped an old lady across the road, but God judges your thoughts and attitude as well e.g. “oh for goodness sake, hurry up I have better things to do!”. SHOCK!
But even as we are in this dark place staring our true selves in the face, remember Jesus’ light in the darkness; we are getting to that bit! However don’t rush there too quickly; if you don’t realize how far you have fallen you miss out on the true enormity of the grace which lifts you up.
So, back to the passage.
Let’s read Hosea 7:3-16 (don’t worry, we will come back to verses 1 and 2). This is a mass of mixed metaphors and confusing images; they can be split in a variety of ways but here is my basic reading of what is being talked about.
This is God spelling out their character flaws and sinful actions, using pictures to try and show them what they are like.
The first image is of an oven:
(v3-7) “They delight the king with their wickedness,
the princes with their lies.
They are all adulterers,
burning like an oven
whose fire the baker need not stir
from the kneading of the dough till it rises.
On the day of the festival of our king
the princes become inflamed with wine,
and he joins hands with the mockers.
Their hearts are like an oven;
they approach him with intrigue.
Their passion smoulders all night;
in the morning it blazes like a flaming fire.
All of them are hot as an oven;
they devour their rulers.
All their kings fall,
and none of them calls on me”.
This is calling out unnatural occurrences as the audience would have known; they are cooking with wood-fired ovens, and as if anyone has used one you know that it needs tending. The wood needs moving around to allow air in and more wood added to keep it burning to stay hot for hours. Hence the mention of time from the kneading to the rising; this is many hours. He is pointing out that these people do not need help to keep their fires burning; the fires here are of passion, anger, and lust. It is reflecting on how the rulers lived; during Hosea’s life there were four rulers assassinated. If you rise up in anger and assassinate the ruler and take over, don’t be surprised if the same happens to you. You reap what you sow as God promised.
The next image is of a half baked cake:
“Ephraim mingles with the pagans, dissipating himself.
Ephraim is half-baked.
Ephraim mixes with the nations;
Ephraim is a flat loaf not turned over”.
This is a strange image for us in the era of fan ovens, but again if you have cooked over fire or a barbecue, you know you have to turn things over to cook on both sides. So what is God saying? He is pointing out that they are neither one thing or another, not fully raw but not fully cooked, having inconsistencies within themselves. By mixing with the pagans, they are diluting themselves. What is meant here, is not about befriending and loving our non-Christian family friends and neighbours (which we are called to do) but rather not intermarrying and adopting their pagan rituals, so they become indistinguishable from the people around them.
They are accused of having one foot in each camp; Christians on Sunday, pagans on Monday-Saturday. This reminds me of a message from Jesus to the church at Laodicea;
“I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm – neither hot nor cold – I am about to spit you out of my mouth”.
We now move on to the picture of old arrogant men:
(v9-10) “Foreigners sap his strength,
but he does not realise it.
His hair is sprinkled with grey,
but he does not notice.
Israel’s arrogance testifies against him,
but despite all this
he does not return to the Lord his God
or search for him”.
Now I’m sure this is an image we can relate to on a personal level; just this week my colleague was telling me of doing cartwheels with her daughter and after landing in a heap she said “I guess I forgot I’m not as young as I used to be”. We all like to think we are young and fit and strong but sadly we have aged, and not realising it is unhelpful.
This also applies to nations, as is put bluntly in the Message translation:
“His hair has turned gray—
he doesn’t notice.
Bloated by arrogance, big as a house,
Israel’s a public disgrace.
Israel lumbers along oblivious to God,
despite all the signs, ignoring God”.
Back in the days of David and Solomon, Israel was a force to be reckoned with a great power but now the nation is divided and powerless. But they haven’t noticed this, thinking they can continue in their own ways, not seeing that without God they are lost.
The next image is of a dove. Often in Scripture, doves are positive images; think of the dove Noah sent out. The dove that descending on Jesus at his baptism. But here doves are portrayed as silly.
(v11-13) “Ephraim is like a dove,
easily deceived and senseless –
now calling to Egypt,
now turning to Assyria.
When they go, I will throw my net over them;
I will pull them down like the birds in the sky.
When I hear them flocking together,
I will catch them.
Woe to them,
because they have strayed from me!
Destruction to them,
because they have rebelled against me!
I long to redeem them
but they speak about me falsely”.
Listen to this version:
“Ephraim is bird-brained,
mindless, clueless,
First chirping after Egypt,
then fluttering after Assyria”.
Knowledge and wisdom are gifts from God and we are told to seek them, but here Ephraim is showing neither. The people are scared of being invaded by the big nations which surround them, so they become fickle and jump from chasing after one country to another to save themselves. There is no standing firm, no trusting in God’s promises here from Ephraim.
The last visual image is of a faulty bow, also translated as treacherous bow:
(v15-16) “I trained them and strengthened their arms,
but they plot evil against me.
They do not turn to the Most High;
they are like a faulty bow.
Their leaders will fall by the sword
because of their insolent words.
For this they will be ridiculed
in the land of Egypt”.
God is saying how he built them and trained them, but once fired they went off course; like a faulty bow which fires an arrow but it misses its target. And sadly the prophecy here comes to pass for the leaders of Ephraim; the northern kingdom falls and it disappears from the history books.
Finally God condemns their actions and calls out their motives:
(v14) They do not cry out to me from their hearts
but wail on their beds.
They slash themselves, appealing to their gods
for grain and new wine,
but they turn away from me.
It is even more vivid in the Message translation:
“Instead of crying out to me in heartfelt prayer,
they whoop it up in bed with their whores,
Gash themselves bloody in their sex-and-religion orgies,
but turn their backs on me“.
This was describing the people’s idol worship, where they thought religion was transactional and not a relationship. I cut myself and bleed and then the gods will give me what I want; often here they were praying for a good harvest of grain and wine. They are trying to manipulate the gods into giving them what they want. This was how the people prayed to Baal, not Yahweh. Shouting and foot stamping, saying ‘look at me, I’m bleeding, do what I want’.
These dramatic scenes again bring to mind the words of Jesus:
“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him”.
Matthew 6:5-8
Wow, that was a whistle stop tour of images of doves/bows/ovens, so let’s take a breath and pray God will use these images for us to see our actions and thoughts in a different way.
Having looked at what these images might have meant then, here are some suggestions of how this might apply to us in Corsham in 2025.
Back to our oven! Hopefully there is no one here planning to overthrow the government but can we see the same root of sin in our world and our lives today. I feel it is reflected in groups of people who form echo chambers, which people who all think similarly then wind each other up without ever challenging themselves by listening to people coming from different backgrounds or points of view. We see it in social media where people are built-up and adored one minute then the next week they are torn down and cancelled in our culture. We can see it in ourselves; stewing on slight hurts and disagreements; feeding on our feelings rather than offering it to God and seeking reconciliation. We allow resentment to smoulder and then explode with anger and harsh words the next morning. We are all guilty.
Remember the half baked cakes? Are we fully committed to things. I am not saying we have to be fully committed to everything all the time; that is a certain way to burn yourself out but if you are doing something do it whole hearted for the season you are doing it.
The picture of the old men; I feel this speaks to be being self aware. Be aware of our limitations and weaknesses; ask for help. It speaks to me of removing the splinter from one’s own eye before worrying about the logs in other people’s. Do we walk around proud, ignoring the signs God is sending us?
The image of silly doves; are we always wise, seeking God before jumping on band wagons? It could be going from the latest diet to the next latest diet, or one exercise plan to another. Or even more damaging; jumping from one high-profile, trendy Christian speaker to another which out really considering what they are saying. Or even moving church repeatedly to find just the right one. Does our security come from God or from external things?
The faulty bow; this reflects on how we keep on track to get to where God is sending us. On Sunday God speaks and sends us out but by Monday evening are we already off track. The way to prevent this is to do with being close with other Christians all week, so they can keep us moving forward in the right direction.
Finally, are we tempted to worship other idols to get what we want? Rather than trusting God to provide for us, do we gamble to try and get more money quickly? Do we pray to God for our health and the skill of medics, but also keep a healing crystal to hand? Do we trust in Jesus Christ, but touch wood just in case?
We have covered a lot of ground here in a whistle-stop tour. There are lots of images and messages from God. So let’s take some time to reflect what might He being saying to you tonight? Which areas might you need to look at? Pray that God will open your eyes to your own heart.
From the study, we looked and saw that the issue is not that God’s people failed; we are all sinners, but that they did not repent. They did not confess their sins and turn back to God praying that he could change them. Jesus came to bear the guilt of our sin so we could be made right with God if we repent, for we know:
1 John 1:9 “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness”.
Lets spend some time now; write it, speak it, think it, pray it, confess it. Bring it to the cross. If you look around you should find crosses and pens which you might find helpful. You can bring up and leave or take home; all will be burned.
There will be more time later is you want to write/pray /talk more.
But before we finish a final line that leapt out at me and made me worry: (v2)
“but they do not realise
that I remember all their evil deeds
It never crosses their mind
that I keep account of their every crime”.
This is scary to think, especially when I look back over my list of crimes against God in just a week, never mind a life time. It is a long list. But remember, this is the old covenant, but we live under the new covenant, which was foretold for us by Jeremiah:
“This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel
after that time,” declares the Lord.
“I will put my law in their minds
and write it on their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people.
No longer will they teach their neighbour,
or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’
because they will all know me,
from the least of them to the greatest,”
declares the Lord.
“For I will forgive their wickedness
and will remember their sins no more”.
Now hear me clearly. God is omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent; all knowing, all powerful and everywhere present. He does not ‘forget things’ like I do when I get to the top of the stairs and can’t remember what I went up for. It is more that He choses not to remember! He puts the thoughts of our sins as far from the east is to the west; He will “remember them no more”.
He choses not to remember our sins, and why? Because he has promised that if we repent and turn to Him, through the blood of Jesus, he will forgive us and wash us clean.
As we come to the end of this evening, to be clear, God and his Scripture are not pointing out your wrong-doings to make you feel worse about yourself. It is so that through God’s redeeming love; “I long to redeem them!”, “I would restore the fortunes of my people”, “I would heal Israel” that you can learn and grow to follow Jesus more closely and be the woman God has made you to be.
Loved, restored, redeemed.
Now there is going to be a song playing; you can pray, reflect or leave as God leads you.
If you want to talk or pray with someone just let me or Anne know and we are very willing to do this.