Daily Bible Reading Wednesday 6th August 2025
by William Moody
Hosea 7
7:1 when I would heal Israel,
the iniquity of Ephraim is revealed,
and the evil deeds of Samaria,
for they deal falsely;
the thief breaks in,
and the bandits raid outside.
2 But they do not consider
that I remember all their evil.
Now their deeds surround them;
they are before my face.
3 By their evil they make the king glad,
and the princes by their treachery.
4 They are all adulterers;
they are like a heated oven
whose baker ceases to stir the fire,
from the kneading of the dough
until it is leavened.
5 On the day of our king, the princes
became sick with the heat of wine;
he stretched out his hand with mockers.
6 For with hearts like an oven they approach their intrigue;
all night their anger smolders;
in the morning it blazes like a flaming fire.
7 All of them are hot as an oven,
and they devour their rulers.
All their kings have fallen,
and none of them calls upon me.
8 Ephraim mixes himself with the peoples;
Ephraim is a cake not turned.
9 Strangers devour his strength,
and he knows it not;
gray hairs are sprinkled upon him,
and he knows it not.
10 The pride of Israel testifies to his face;1
yet they do not return to the LORD their God,
nor seek him, for all this.
11 Ephraim is like a dove,
silly and without sense,
calling to Egypt, going to Assyria.
12 As they go, I will spread over them my net;
I will bring them down like birds of the heavens;
I will discipline them according to the report made to their congregation.
13 Woe to them, for they have strayed from me!
Destruction to them, for they have rebelled against me!
I would redeem them,
but they speak lies against me.
14 They do not cry to me from the heart,
but they wail upon their beds;
for grain and wine they gash themselves;
they rebel against me.
15 Although I trained and strengthened their arms,
yet they devise evil against me.
16 They return, but not upward;2
they are like a treacherous bow;
their princes shall fall by the sword
because of the insolence of their tongue.
This shall be their derision in the land of Egypt.(ESV)
The Lord would heal the northern kingdom of Israel, but what holds Him back are the evil deeds of the people (v1). The people foolishly think that the
Lord does not remember their evil deeds (v2), but He remembers them all.
Do you realise that all your evil deeds are remembered until they are
confessed, repented of and forgiven in Christ? Are their deeds you now need
to confess and repent of?
The people are pictured here as being like an overheated oven that
devours others (v4-7). These people are filled with anger and rage and often
it was directed against their leaders (v7).
In your heart does anger and bitterness towards others lurk? Remember
nothing is hidden from the Lord, it is time to confess wrong attitudesa nd
actions towards others.
The people are in great need because of their sin but still they will not
return to the Lord (v10). Ephraim (the northern kingdom) has instead gone to
Assyria and Egypt for help instead of looking to the Lord (v11). Are we silly
like these people, running everywhere for help but neglecting the Lord?
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