Daily Devotions
Hosea
"None among them calls upon Me"
Text: Hosea 7:7
A KINGDOM THAT DID NOT CALL UPON THE LORD THEIR GOD
The Northern kingdom of Israel became more and more estranged from the LORD their God.
“They prepare their heart like an oven,
While they lie in wait;
Their baker sleeps all night;
In the morning it burns like a flaming fire.
They are all hot, like an oven,
And have devoured their judges;
All their kings have fallen.
None among them calls upon Me.”
Hosea 7:6-7
1. The baker and oven imagery
a) An oven must be kept hot and ready for baking.
b) The baker here might well refer to the king in this context.
i) He has had too much to drink.
ii) He sleeps all night intoxicated.
2. “They lie in wait”
a) This would be a reference to the princes who have made the king too drunk to rule well.
b) They lie in wait for an opportunity to strike while the king sleeps.
They also lie in wait to do evil when the king is too inebriated to take notice.
3. “In the morning it burns like a flaming fire”
a) This kind of oven is over-heated.
b) But the reference is no longer about the oven.
4. “They are all hot, like an oven, and have devoured their judges”
a) The princes and their companions are heated with
i) Avarice,
ii) Wickedness.
b) They have consumed whatever good judges the kingdom might have had.
i) The king is asleep and does not take notice.
ii) The wicked princes virtually rule the kingdom.
5. “All their kings have fallen”
This is a sad but true statement. None of the kings of the Northern Kingdom was good and virtuous.
6. “None among them calls upon Me”
This was a sad and solemn truth that could not be denied!