THEIR HEART LIKE AN OVEN … IT BURNETH AS A FLAMING FIRE

The verses before us today are full of striking imagery as the Lord reveals His awareness of the nation’s sin. Three times He compares their behaviour to an oven, vv. 4, 6, 7. Then, in view of their constant dalliance with idolatrous neighbours, He likens them to ‘a cake not turned’, v. 8, and to ‘a silly dove’, lacking both substance and sense! In verse 16, even when there appears to be a measure of recovery, they turn out to be ‘like a deceitful bow’, untrustworthy and of little use to its owner.

The ‘oven’ analogy marks a progression in their godless activity. The leaven of immorality had long been fermenting in the nation and, in verse 4, Hosea views the adversary like a baker, having prepared the dough and introduced the leaven, now just waiting as the warmth of the oven overnight allows the insidious process to work. ‘In the morning’, v. 6, the dough, in which the effects of the leaven will be openly seen as the bread has risen in response to the heat, is ready to be placed in the heated oven. We are reminded of the warning given by James, ‘when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin’, Jas. 1. 15. Those corrupt thoughts and desires which were harboured in their hearts, eventually broke forth in open sin, and sin, of course, ‘when it is finished, bringeth forth death’, ibid. The anger and passion which so inflamed the hearts and minds of the people of Israel ‘devoured their judges’, v. 7, and brought about the down­fall of their kings. The historical record of First and Second Kings bears out this fact, as very few of the kings of Israel died natural deaths. Murder, suicide, intrigue and death in battle stalked the pathway of ungodly kings who sought to rule ungodly people; of whom the Lord, with heavy heart, will say, ‘None among them calleth unto me’, v. 7; and again, ‘they do not return to the Lord their God, nor seek him for all this’, v. 10.

How careful we need to be in guarding what one has called ‘the picture gallery of our minds’. Seeking to ‘purge out.. the leaven of malice and wickedness’, 1 Cor. 5. 7, 8, before it develops into actions which cause distress to ourselves and others, and damage to the testimony.