Ch 7 / 14~2 min
HosheaChapter 7
Half-Baked, Neither Hot Nor Cold for Him
Israel's half-baked cake and uncured spiritual sickness foreshadow the incompleteness of every human religious effort and the complete healing only Yeshua's wholeness provides.
- Israel's Corruption
Israel's corruption runs deep — deceit, theft, and drunkenness. The sickness is internal.
- 1When I would heal Israel, then the iniquity of Ephraim is uncovered, also the wickedness of Samaria; for they commit falsehood, and the thief enters in, and the gang of robbers ravages outside.
- 2They don’t consider in their hearts that I remember all their wickedness. Now their own deeds have engulfed them. They are before my face.
- 3They make the king glad with their wickedness, and the princes with their lies.
- 4They are all adulterers. They are burning like an oven that the baker stops stirring, from the kneading of the dough, until it is leavened.
- 5On the day of our king, the princes made themselves sick with the heat of wine. He joined his hand with mockers.
- 6For they have prepared their heart like an oven, while they lie in wait. Their anger smoulders all night. In the morning it burns as a flaming fire.
- 7They are all hot as an oven, and devour their judges. All their kings have fallen. There is no one amongst them who calls to me.
- Ephraim Like a Cake Not Turned
Ephraim is like a cake not turned — burned on one side, raw on the other. Half-hearted devotion helps no one.
- 8Ephraim mixes himself amongst the nations. Ephraim is a pancake not turned over.
- 9Strangers have devoured his strength, and he doesn’t realise it. Indeed, grey hairs are here and there on him, and he doesn’t realise it.
- 10The pride of Israel testifies to his face; yet they haven’t returned to YHWH their Elohim, nor sought him, for all this.
- 11Ephraim is like an easily deceived dove, without understanding. They call to Egypt. They go to Assyria.
- 12When they go, I will spread my net on them. I will bring them down like the birds of the sky. I will chastise them, as their congregation has heard.
- 13Woe to them! For they have wandered from me. Destruction to them! For they have trespassed against me. Though I would redeem them, yet they have spoken lies against me.
- 14They haven’t cried to me with their heart, but they howl on their beds. They assemble themselves for grain and new wine. They turn away from me.
- 15Though I have taught and strengthened their arms, yet they plot evil against me.
- 16They return, but not to the Elyon. They are like a faulty bow. Their princes will fall by the sword for the rage of their tongue. This will be their derision in the land of Egypt.